The short answer
- Moving from Notion Plus to AppFlowy (free tier) at 1 seat saves $94 in the first year, after setup and upkeep time (Stackcut's model: modeled, not measured).
- AppFlowy's official migration guide moves 2 partly; 2 things stay behind. What moves
- 3 public accounts of making this switch: 3 switched. Read them
- 2 comparison pages checked, each labeled with who wrote it. What they claim
- Switching help: Free built-in Notion .zip importer on AppFlowy's Notion comparison page, plus free CSV/Markdown import for a manual, simple-structure migration. docs.appflowy.io
What Notion and AppFlowy 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 |
| AppFlowy Pro | $12.50/user/mo | $10/user/mo | Unlimited storage, up to 50 workspace members, 100 guest editors |
- 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
- AppFlowy free plan: 1 collaborative workspace up to 2 members, 5 GB storage appflowy.com
What comparison pages say
Each claim as the page makes it, and who it favors. Vendor pages are labeled; weigh them accordingly.
2 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 | Notion runs $8-$20/user/month while AppFlowy is free and GPL-3.0 licensed | AppFlowy | Open Source Alternative Finder affiliate page |
| Lock-in | AppFlowy self-hosting takes about 5 minutes to set up; Notion offers no self-hosting option | AppFlowy | Open Source Alternative Finder affiliate page |
| Reliability | AppFlowy has occasional edge-case bugs in complex database relations, unlike Notion's more mature databases | Notion | Open Source Alternative Finder affiliate page |
| Lock-in | AppFlowy can be fully self-hosted on infrastructure you control, including air-gapped environments; Notion cannot be self-hosted at all | AppFlowy | AppFlowy vendor page |
| Features | AppFlowy can run local AI via Ollama or LMStudio fully offline, while Notion AI relies on third-party cloud AI services | AppFlowy | AppFlowy vendor page |
| Features | AppFlowy supports Grid, Kanban, Calendar, Gallery, List, Timeline, Feed, Form and Chart database views, but Notion still leads with Map views | Notion | AppFlowy vendor page |
Moving from Notion to AppFlowy
What AppFlowy's importer carries over, what it leaves behind, and any help it offers switchers.
To AppFlowy
Official guide docs.appflowy.io · Tools: AppFlowy Notion importer
Moves: Pages and workspace structure (partial); Databases, pages and media (partial). docs.appflowy.io
Doesn't move: Rollups and formulas (must be rebuilt manually); Moving pages/tables between workspaces after import isn't supported yet. docs.appflowy.io
Watch out for:
- Import creates a brand-new AppFlowy workspace; pages and tables can't yet be moved into or merged with an existing one docs.appflowy.io
- Rollups and formulas are lost and must be rebuilt by hand docs.appflowy.io
Community guide reallinuxuser.com · Tools: AppFlowy CSV import, AppFlowy Text & Markdown import
Moves: Individual database tables (standard fields) (full); Page content and text (full). reallinuxuser.com
Doesn't move: Rollups and formulas. reallinuxuser.com
Watch out for:
- Rollups and formulas don't survive and must be rebuilt manually reallinuxuser.com
Switching help: Free built-in Notion .zip importer on AppFlowy's Notion comparison page, plus free CSV/Markdown import for a manual, simple-structure migration. docs.appflowy.io
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 AppFlowy
3 public accounts of leaving Notion: 3 switched. Summaries are ours; each links the original, and each was checked against its page before it appeared here.
A Notion workspace outgrew its performance (large databases slow down, a roughly 250k-row write cap) so the author self-hosted AppFlowy instead, finding a near-identical UI, instant loads and full offline access. daily.dev
A DevOps-focused author wrote a personal Python script that pulls Title/Select fields via the Notion API and reformats them as Markdown for AppFlowy import, replacing manual copy-paste; the basic script is limited to those two field types and hits API rate limits on large databases. TechResolve
An independent guide migrating a simple Notion structure (tables via CSV, pages via Markdown) into AppFlowy imported directly into an existing workspace, unlike AppFlowy's official all-at-once importer which creates a separate one; the manual, one-by-one process only suits simple setups, not large ones. ReAllLinuxUser
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 AppFlowy cheaper than Notion?
Modeled, not measured: moving from Notion Plus to AppFlowy (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 AppFlowy?
AppFlowy's official guide moves: Pages and workspace structure; Databases, pages and media. It doesn't move: Rollups and formulas (must be rebuilt manually); Moving pages/tables between workspaces after import isn't supported yet. docs.appflowy.io
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 AppFlowy help people switch from Notion?
Free built-in Notion .zip importer on AppFlowy's Notion comparison page, plus free CSV/Markdown import for a manual, simple-structure migration. docs.appflowy.io
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