Docs and wikis · cost comparison
Notion vs self-hosted AFFiNE: what each actually costs
Notion on the Business tier against AFFiNE running on the smallest server that fits it. Every figure below is computed from the sizing model and the dated prices at the foot of this page, and includes the part most comparisons leave out: your own time.
At 10 people, self-hosting AFFiNE costs $121 a month against $218 for Notion. You are ahead after 5 months and $3,068 better off over 36 months, with your own time already priced in.
- Notion
- $218per month, Business
- Self-hosted
- $121server, backups and your time
- Server and backups
- $8.04CX23 (cost-optimized), 4 GB RAM
- 36-month difference
- $3,068 saved by self-hosting
- Break-even
- 5 monthsafter $450 of setup time
The same comparison at every team size
Self-hosting has a floor and almost no slope, while per-seat software has no floor and a steep slope. That is the whole story, and it is why the answer flips somewhere in this table rather than being the same for everyone.
| Team size | Notion | Self-hosted | Without valuing your time | Server needed | 36-month difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| solo | $21.83 | $121 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | -$4,004 |
| 5 people | $109 | $121 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | -$861 |
| 10 people | $218 | $121 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$3,068 |
| 25 people | $546 | $121 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$14,854 |
| 50 people | $1,091 | $121 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$34,498 |
| 100 people | $2,183 | $125 | $12.07 | CX33 (cost-optimized) (8 GB) | +$73,640 |
| 250 people | $5,457 | $135 | $22.15 | CX43 (cost-optimized) (16 GB) | +$191,140 |
The balance tips in favour of self-hosting at around 10 people.
Where the self-hosted money actually goes at 10 people
| Line item | Per month | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Server | $6.70 | CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB disk |
| Backups | $1.34 | Provider snapshots at 20% of the server price. Skipping this is not a saving, it is a bet. |
| Your time | $112 | 1.5 hours a month of updates, upgrades and the occasional broken thing, at $75 an hour |
| Total | $121 | Plus $450 once, for roughly 6 hours of first-time setup |
Notion at this size costs $218 a month. 10 seats at $21.83 each. The vendor quoted EUR, converted at the dated rate on the methodology page.
What AFFiNE needs to run at 10 people
The closest match to Notion's block editor and whiteboard combination. Self-hosting is supported but moves faster than the other options here, so pin your image tag.
| Resource | Required | How it is derived |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 2.7 GB | 2 GB for the stack at rest, plus 15 MB per active user, plus 25% headroom |
| Disk | 19 GB | 15 GB base, plus 0.4 GB per user |
| vCPU | 2 | The project's own baseline. For this workload memory runs out before the processor does. |
These base figures are an estimate. AFFiNE does not publish a minimum specification we could cite, so the base memory and disk are derived from the services in its own reference Docker Compose file. Treat them as a starting point and watch the first week of metrics.
What you give up, stated plainly
- Uptime is now yours. Notion has an operations team on call. Self-hosted, a failed upgrade at 18:00 on a Friday is your evening.
- Backups only exist if you test restoring them. The $1.34 line above buys snapshots, not a rehearsed recovery.
- AFFiNE is a multi-container stack with a database you have to back up yourself. That is why the maintenance line is 1.5 hours a month rather than zero.
- Feature parity is never exact. AFFiNE covers the core of what teams use Notion for; the long tail of integrations and enterprise controls is where the gap shows.
Where to put AFFiNE
2.7 GB of memory and 19 GB of disk is what this needs at 10 people. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read ourselves, is the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud for $6.70 a month.
Go to Hetzner Cloud Compare hosts
We are not claiming this is the cheapest server on the internet. It is the cheapest one we can honestly quote. Vultr and PikaPods publish prices we could not read programmatically, and may well undercut it. Price them yourself before you commit.
AFFiNE at a glance
| Licence | Other not a standard open-source licence |
|---|---|
| Written in | TypeScript |
| GitHub stars | 72,476, checked 2026-09-12 |
| Latest release | v0.27.4 |
| Last commit | 2026-09-10 |
| Ships Docker images | Yes |
| Project | affine.pro · toeverything/AFFiNE |
Get the migration checklist for this tool
A one-page pre-flight list: data export path, sizing, backup plan, and the rollback step most people skip.
Questions people actually ask
How much does Notion cost?
Notion Business costs $218 a month at 10 people: EUR 19.50 per seat per month. That figure was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-12.
What does it cost to self-host AFFiNE?
$121 a month at 10 people: $6.70 for the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud, $1.34 of backups, and $112 for the 1.5 hours a month it takes to look after.
Is AFFiNE cheaper than Notion?
Yes, after 5 months, once $450 of first-time setup is counted. Over 36 months the difference is $3,068 in favour of self-hosting.
What server does AFFiNE need?
At 10 people, 2.7 GB of memory and 19 GB of disk. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read, is the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud for $6.70 a month.
How much work is AFFiNE to run?
It is rated medium: about 6 hours to set up and 1.5 hours a month afterwards, priced at $75.00 an hour in the figures above.
Every figure on this page, and where it came from
| Input | Value used | Source | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notion Business | EUR 19.50 per seat per month | vendor pricing page | 2026-09-12 |
| Hetzner Cloud CX23 (cost-optimized) | $6.70 per month | provider pricing page | 2026-10-25 |
| Exchange rate | 1 EUR = 1.1193 USD | Frankfurter, European Central Bank reference rates | 2026-10-23 |
| Engineer time | $75 per hour | our published assumption | — |
| AFFiNE sizing | 2 GB base, 15 MB per user | derived from its reference Compose stack | — |
Prices move. If the vendor has changed theirs since 2026-09-12, the figures above are stale and the source links are the authority, not us. How we handle that.