The short answer
- Moving from Notion Plus to AFFiNE (free tier) at 1 seat saves $94 in the first year, after setup and upkeep time (Stackcut's model: modeled, not measured).
- AFFiNE's official migration guide moves 2 partly; 3 things stay behind. What moves
- 4 public accounts of making this switch: 3 gave up, 1 switched. Read them
- 3 comparison pages checked, each labeled with who wrote it. What they claim
- Switching help: Built-in Notion importer (HTML/.zip) inside the AFFiNE app. affine.pro
What Notion and AFFiNE cost
List prices from each vendor's pricing page, as stored in the Stackcut catalog. Each price links its source.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notion Plus | $12/user/mo | $10/user/mo | Unlimited collaborative blocks and file uploads, 30-day page history |
| Notion Business | $24/user/mo | $20/user/mo | Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes, enterprise search, SAML SSO, 90-day page history |
- Notion free plan: Unlimited pages/blocks for individuals but limited blocks for 2+ members; 5 MB per file upload; 7-day page history; 10 external guests; Notion AI trial only notion.com
- AFFiNE free plan: Unlimited local workspaces; Cloud: 10 GB storage, up to 3 members per workspace, 7 days version history affine.pro
AFFiNE's plans aren't in the Stackcut catalog yet; check AFFiNE's own site.
What comparison pages say
Each claim as the page makes it, and who it favors. Vendor pages are labeled; weigh them accordingly.
3 pages compared, 1 of them written by one of the two vendors. Claims are the pages' own, paraphrased; prices in them may be older than the catalog prices above.
| About | The page says | Favors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | A 10-person team costs $200/month on Notion Plus with AI versus $67.50/month on AFFiNE Pro | AFFiNE | Fabric independent |
| Features | Notion's relational databases with six view types are deeper than AFFiNE's, which has custom fields but less depth | Notion | Fabric independent |
| Features | AFFiNE has a built-in infinite whiteboard/canvas; Notion has no canvas or spatial thinking tool | AFFiNE | Fabric independent |
| Lock-in | AFFiNE is open source and self-hostable with 60,000+ GitHub stars; Notion is proprietary and cloud-only | AFFiNE | Fabric independent |
| Ecosystem | Notion ranks #1 in Knowledge Management with 8.2 average rating and 6.7% mindshare versus AFFiNE's #9 rank and 3.4% | Notion | PeerSpot independent |
| Price | A reviewer called Notion's per-user pricing model its main pain point and wants a flat organization-wide rate instead | Even | PeerSpot independent |
| Reliability | A reviewer said Notion's markdown editor breaks when pasting content copied from ChatGPT | Even | PeerSpot independent |
| Price | AFFiNE is pitched as a cheaper alternative with similar features, especially versus Notion's per-seat cost for bigger teams | AFFiNE | AFFiNE vendor page |
| Data portability | AFFiNE lets users self-host on their own servers and customize where their data is stored | AFFiNE | AFFiNE vendor page |
| Migration effort | AFFiNE's importer can bring in content written in Notion, HTML, or Markdown | AFFiNE | AFFiNE vendor page |
Moving from Notion to AFFiNE
What AFFiNE's importer carries over, what it leaves behind, and any help it offers switchers.
To AFFiNE
Official guide affine.pro · Tools: AFFiNE Notion importer
Moves: Pages and page hierarchy (partial); Notion databases (partial). affine.pro
Doesn't move: Cross-page references and backreferences; Link-to-block references (vendor says planned, not yet supported); Full one-to-one feature parity with Notion is not guaranteed. affine.pro
Watch out for:
- Complex workspaces with many cross-page references and multiple databases may not keep their original structure affine.pro
- Large .zip imports have frozen the app for at least one user on desktop (macOS ARM64) affine.pro
- Link-to-block references aren't supported yet affine.pro
Switching help: Built-in Notion importer (HTML/.zip) inside the AFFiNE app. affine.pro
From each destination's own migration docs and switching pages, plus community write-ups where no official guide exists, each checked against its page. Confirm terms on the linked page before you rely on an offer.
People who moved from Notion to AFFiNE
4 public accounts of leaving Notion: 3 gave up, 1 switched. Summaries are ours; each links the original, and each was checked against its page before it appeared here.
A switcher moved a Notion workspace to self-hosted AFFiNE for true offline editing, a built-in canvas and data control; migration worked via the built-in importer, though nested folders didn't fully transfer and mobile/Android has rough edges. daily.dev
A user's Notion import into AFFiNE's web app (app.affine.pro) repeatedly failed with a JavaScript type error, and partial imports left pages unorganized with missing content; the underlying bug was later fixed via a linked pull request. GitHub (toeverything/AFFiNE)
A user with a complex, cross-referenced Notion workspace (several databases with references and backreferences) used the standard HTML export and import but could not reproduce the same structure in AFFiNE; the question went unanswered by the AFFiNE team. GitHub (toeverything/AFFiNE)
A user's Notion .zip import froze AFFiNE on macOS ARM64 for hours; after force-restarting, roughly half the pages hadn't imported. Maintainers closed the report as not planned. GitHub (toeverything/AFFiNE)
How to leave Notion
Export first, then cancel. Every step links the vendor's own help page, checked on the date shown.
How to leave Notion
Export first
- Whole workspace: Settings → General → Export all workspace content (Markdown & CSV, HTML, PDF). Large exports arrive by email with a link that expires after 7 days and can take up to 30 hours. Form views can't be exported. notion.com
- A single page: The ••• menu at the top right of the page → Export (Markdown & CSV, HTML, PDF). notion.com
What you lose
- Form views of a database can't be exported at all, in any format
- Other members' private pages you lack access to are skipped by any export you run
- Content restricted by teamspace settings may be excluded from an export
- Downgrading caps multi-person workspaces at 1,000 blocks, 5MB files, 7-day version history, 10 guests and 1 published domain
- Automations and Custom Agents become view-only (not deleted) on downgrade; SAML SSO, SCIM and the Audit Log are switched off below Business/Enterprise
Cancel
- Export the whole workspace first (see export).
- Settings → Billing → Change plan → pick the plan → Continue → give feedback → Downgrade.
- Takes effect
- At the end of your billing cycle.
- Refunds
- Only within 3 days of the invoice on monthly billing, or 30 days on annual billing, requested from the workspace owner's or billing email.
- After you cancel
- You land on the Free plan: Unlimited pages/blocks for individuals but limited blocks for 2+ members; 5 MB per file upload; 7-day page history; 10 external guests; Notion AI trial only.
FAQ
Is AFFiNE cheaper than Notion?
Modeled, not measured: moving from Notion Plus to AFFiNE (free tier) at 1 seat saves $94 in the first year, after setup and upkeep time at $50/hour. It depends on your plan, seats and usage. the math
Can I move my Notion data to AFFiNE?
AFFiNE's official guide moves: Pages and page hierarchy; Notion databases. It doesn't move: Cross-page references and backreferences; Link-to-block references (vendor says planned, not yet supported); Full one-to-one feature parity with Notion is not guaranteed. affine.pro
What do I lose when I leave Notion?
Per Notion's own pages, leaving or downgrading loses: Form views of a database can't be exported at all, in any format; Other members' private pages you lack access to are skipped by any export you run; Content restricted by teamspace settings may be excluded from an export; Downgrading caps multi-person workspaces at 1,000 blocks, 5MB files, 7-day version history, 10 guests and 1 published domain. notion.com
Does AFFiNE help people switch from Notion?
Built-in Notion importer (HTML/.zip) inside the AFFiNE app. affine.pro
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