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