Fabric vs AFFiNE

Last updated May 2026

AFFiNE and Fabric are both trying to solve the "everything in one place" problem. They come at it from completely different directions.

AFFiNE is open source, local-first, and gives you blocks, databases, and an infinite whiteboard canvas. It's essentially building an open-source Notion with a visual collaboration layer. You create the structure. You build the system.

Fabric doesn't try to be a database or a structured workspace. It's an intelligent library. You save things, any file type, from any source, and the AI handles the rest: extraction, enrichment, relationship mapping, semantic search. AFFiNE gives you control. Fabric gives you understanding. The choice depends on whether you want to build your system or have it built for you.

Comparison table

What is AFFiNE?

AFFiNE is an open-source workspace that combines docs, whiteboards, and databases in a single app. The block-based editor handles rich text, embeds, and toggles. The edgeless canvas is an infinite whiteboard with shapes, connectors, frames for presentations, and embedded documents. Databases support custom fields, table and kanban views, and filters. Everything is local-first: your data is stored on your device by default, with optional cloud sync. Self-hosting is available. Over 60,000 GitHub stars. Free forever for core features. Pro at $6.75/month adds AI writing tools and extra cloud storage. Team at $10/seat/month adds collaboration features. AFFiNE is still evolving: integrations are limited, performance can slow on large canvases, and the community is smaller than Notion's or Obsidian's. But for technical users who want an open-source workspace they can inspect, fork, and self-host, it's a genuine option.

What is Fabric?

Fabric is an AI workspace that combines file storage, note-taking, search, tasks, collaboration, and publishing. The Fabric Memory Engine automatically extracts, enriches, and maps relationships between everything you save. Where AFFiNE gives you blocks and databases to build structure manually, Fabric understands your content without being told how to organise it. If you're comparing workspace alternatives more broadly, see also Fabric vs Notion and Fabric vs Obsidian.

Key differences

Building structure vs discovering it

AFFiNE is a construction tool. You create pages, build databases with custom fields, design whiteboard layouts, connect blocks. The structure is yours. You decide what links to what, which properties to track, how the information relates. This is powerful for people who think in systems and want to design their own.

Fabric is a discovery tool. You save content. The Memory Engine extracts it, indexes it, and maps relationships automatically. You don't build a database schema or link blocks manually. The AI finds connections for you. Semantic search finds things by meaning. You can ask questions across your entire library and get answers that draw from files you never explicitly connected.

AFFiNE rewards people who enjoy building. Fabric rewards people who'd rather skip the building and start using.

AI

AFFiNE's AI is a writing assistant available on Pro. It summarises, expands, translates, and rewrites text. Useful within individual documents. It's not aware of your other pages, databases, or whiteboard content. It helps you write, not understand.

Fabric's AI assistant works across your entire library. Every file you've saved is available as context. Ask a question that spans multiple documents, meeting recordings, PDFs, and notes. The AI summarises, transcribes audio and video, maps relationships, and takes actions. Multiple models including Claude. Included at every tier without credits. The AI understands your knowledge, not just your current paragraph.

Content types

AFFiNE handles docs, whiteboards, and databases. Images and files can be embedded in pages. But there's no native handling of video, audio, PDFs as searchable indexed content, slide decks, or spreadsheets. The content model is blocks you create and arrange.

Fabric handles everything: PDFs, images, video, audio, documents, slides, spreadsheets, ePubs, links, emails. All automatically extracted, enriched, and searchable. In-document search finds the page in a PDF or the timestamp in a video. If your knowledge lives in more than text and embedded images, Fabric covers the full range.

The whiteboard

AFFiNE's edgeless canvas is a genuine strength. An infinite whiteboard with shapes, connectors, text blocks, embedded documents, and frames that export as presentation slides. For visual brainstorming, diagramming, and spatial thinking, it's well-built. The canvas is central to AFFiNE's identity, not an afterthought.

Fabric's spatial canvas takes a different approach. You drag files, notes, PDFs, and links from your library onto the canvas as preview cards. Live embeds let you drop in Figma designs, YouTube videos, Google Maps, Slides, Spotify playlists, and Replit code that work right on the canvas. Sticky notes, text boxes, images, arrows, shapes, and freeform drawing. Infinite space with real-time multiplayer. The AI assistant understands your canvas layouts and can help organise, connect, or explain the content on your boards. You can search across canvases by text, file names, or what's inside embedded previews. And annotations work on the canvas too.

AFFiNE's canvas is for building visual structures. Fabric's canvas is for thinking with your library. AFFiNE gives you more diagramming tools. Fabric gives you more content types to think with and an AI that understands what's on the board.

Search

AFFiNE has full-text search across pages. For finding something when you remember a keyword from it, this works. No semantic search, no visual search, no ability to search inside embedded files or across external services.

Fabric searches by meaning. Semantic search finds content even when you describe it differently. Visual search finds similar images. Colour search finds assets by palette. In-document search goes inside PDFs, slides, and video transcripts. Cross-platform search pulls from Google Drive, Notion, and Dropbox alongside your Fabric library. When your library grows beyond what you can manually organise, search quality is what separates usable from unusable.

Data ownership and open source

AFFiNE's strongest argument. The code is on GitHub with 60,000+ stars. Local-first means your data lives on your device by default. Self-hosting means you run the server. No cloud dependency for core functionality. If AFFiNE the company disappears, your data and the software both survive.

Fabric is cloud-hosted. Your content is encrypted (AES-256 at rest, SSL in transit, CASA Tier 2) and private. But it's on Fabric's infrastructure. If data sovereignty and the ability to inspect every line of code matter to you, AFFiNE delivers that and Fabric doesn't.

Offline

AFFiNE is local-first. Full offline access. No internet required for core functionality.

Fabric's desktop app supports local folder sync, but AI and search require connectivity.

Integrations

AFFiNE has limited integrations. Import from Notion and Markdown. No Zapier, no API ecosystem, no connections to Google Drive, Dropbox, or other services. The content in AFFiNE is what you create inside AFFiNE.

Fabric connects to Google Drive, Notion, Dropbox, Gmail, GitHub, Zapier, Raycast, and more via API, MCP, and CLI. Cross-platform search pulls from all connected services. If your content already lives across multiple tools, Fabric works with them. AFFiNE asks you to bring everything inside.

Databases

AFFiNE has structured databases with custom fields, multiple views, and filters. For project tracking, reading lists, and structured data management, this is a specific capability.

Fabric doesn't have structured databases. Organisation happens through Spaces, folders, tags, and multiple view modes, but there's no relational database layer. If you need custom fields, filtered views, and structured data, AFFiNE (or Notion) provides that.

Meeting notes

AFFiNE doesn't handle meeting transcription.

Fabric does bot-free real-time transcription with AI summaries, action item extraction, and smart meeting notes. The transcript connects to everything else in your library.

When to use each

Use Fabric if you want your content understood and connected without building the structure. You work with diverse file types beyond text. You want AI that spans your entire library. You need semantic search, collaboration, publishing with analytics, and connections to existing tools. You want a home for your thoughts that builds itself. You'd rather save things and ask questions than design databases and link blocks.

Use AFFiNE if you want an open-source, local-first workspace you can self-host and inspect. You need structured databases with custom fields and views. You want an edgeless whiteboard canvas for visual brainstorming and presentations. You value data sovereignty above all. You're comfortable with a tool that's still evolving and has limited integrations. And you want to build your workspace architecture yourself.

Why people move from AFFiNE to Fabric

They had more than text and whiteboards. PDFs, meeting recordings, video references, saved articles, design files, slide decks. AFFiNE handles docs and canvases. Fabric handles everything.

They wanted AI that understands their content. AFFiNE's AI writes and rewrites text. Fabric's AI understands your entire library and answers questions across it.

They wanted semantic search. Finding content by describing what it was about, not by remembering keywords. Fabric's search finds things AFFiNE's full-text search can't.

They needed integrations. Content across Google Drive, Notion, Dropbox, Gmail. AFFiNE doesn't connect to external services. Fabric does.

They wanted it to work without building it. AFFiNE's flexibility requires setup: designing pages, configuring databases, organising whiteboard spaces. Fabric works the moment you save something.

FAQs

Is AFFiNE free?

Yes. AFFiNE is free forever for local use with basic cloud features. Pro at $6.75/month adds AI and extra cloud storage. Fabric has a free tier with limited storage and AI. Both have free starting points, but AFFiNE's free tier is more generous for core features because it's open source.

Does Fabric have a whiteboard like AFFiNE's?

Fabric has a spatial canvas with real-time multiplayer, live embeds (Figma, YouTube, Google Maps, Replit), drag-and-drop from your library, sticky notes, shapes, arrows, freeform drawing, and AI that understands what's on the board. It's less structured than AFFiNE's edgeless canvas, which has connectors, frames, and presentation export. For diagramming and visual workflows, AFFiNE's canvas has more structural tools. For thinking with your saved content spatially, Fabric's canvas is connected to your entire AI-aware library.

Does Fabric have databases like AFFiNE?

No. Fabric doesn't have structured databases with custom fields and views. For that, AFFiNE or Notion is the right tool. Fabric organises content through Spaces, folders, tags, and AI-powered relationship mapping instead.

Can I self-host Fabric?

No. Fabric is cloud-hosted. AFFiNE supports self-hosting for teams that need full control over their infrastructure and data.

Does AFFiNE have semantic search?

No. AFFiNE has full-text search across pages. Fabric searches by meaning, inside documents, across connected services, and by visual similarity.

How does this compare to Fabric vs Notion?

AFFiNE is architecturally similar to Notion (blocks, databases, pages) but open source and local-first. Fabric's comparison to both is the same: automatic content understanding vs manual structure building. See Fabric vs Notion for the full breakdown. The difference is that AFFiNE offers data sovereignty that Notion doesn't, while Notion offers an integration ecosystem that AFFiNE doesn't.