AFFiNE vs Huly: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to Notion. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
| AFFiNE | Huly | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Productivity | Productivity |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| GitHub stars | ~46k | ~11k |
| Tech stack | Rust, TypeScript, PostgreSQL | Rust, React, MongoDB |
| Replaces | Notion | Linear, Notion, Slack |
AFFiNE has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
AFFiNE
Docs + whiteboard on one canvas, an alternative to Notion.
Pros
- Combines notes and a whiteboard, something Notion doesn't offer natively
Things to consider
- The official self-host setup still evolves quickly between versions
Huly
Projects + chat + docs in one, an alternative to Linear/Notion/Slack.
ℹ️ This single-container docker-compose doesn't match how Huly is actually deployed: the hardcoreeng/huly image doesn't exist, and the real project is ~10 independent microservices orchestrated by the official installer. Use huly-selfhost (github.com/hcengineering/huly-selfhost) for a deployment that actually works — we aren't rewriting that topology here without being able to verify it service by service.
Pros
- Replaces three different SaaS tools with a single deployment
Things to consider
- Young project, integration ecosystem still limited
- This catalog's docker-compose isn't deployable as-is (see note above) — use the official huly-selfhost installer
Key features
AFFiNE
- Notion-style docs and databases
- Integrated infinite whiteboard
- Local-first mode
Huly
- Linear-style issues and projects
- Team chat and channels
- Collaborative documents
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