AppFlowy vs SiYuan

AppFlowy

Open-source Notion alternative (offline-first)

SiYuan

Privacy-first local-first block-based note-taking

Feature AppFlowy SiYuan
Category Knowledge & Docs Knowledge & Docs
Sub-category Wiki / Notes Notes App
Maturity stable stable
Complexity beginner intermediate
Performance tier medium medium
License AGPL-3.0 AGPL-3.0
License type copyleft copyleft
Pricing fully free fully free
GitHub stars 60.0K 26.0K
Contributors 0 0
Commit frequency weekly weekly
Plugin ecosystem none none
Docs quality good good
Backing org AppFlowy B3log
Funding model vc_backed community
Min RAM 512 MB 256 MB
Min CPU cores 1 1
Scaling pattern single_node single_node
Self-hostable Yes Yes
K8s native No No
Offline capable No Yes
Vendor lock-in none none
Languages Rust, Dart Go, TypeScript
API type REST REST
Protocols HTTP HTTP
Deployment docker docker, binary
SDK languages — —
Team size fit solo, small, medium solo, small
First release 2020 2020
Latest version — —

When to use AppFlowy

  • ✓ Primary: personal-knowledge-management
  • ✓ Primary: project-management
  • ✓ Primary: offline-notes

When to use SiYuan

  • ✓ Private knowledge base with encrypted cloud sync
  • ✓ Block-based note organization with SQL queries
  • ✓ Bidirectional linking for knowledge graph

AppFlowy anti-patterns

SiYuan anti-patterns

  • ✕ Less polished than Notion
  • ✕ Sync requires paid subscription
  • ✕ Smaller plugin ecosystem
  • ✕ Chinese-origin — some docs not fully translated
Full AppFlowy profile → Full SiYuan profile → All comparisons