# Free Notion alternatives for teams, and the limit each one hits first

> Notion Free caps a shared workspace at 1,000 blocks. AFFiNE, Docmost, Outline, AppFlowy, Anytype, Logseq, Obsidian and Baalda: what stays free once a team writes in it.

Source: https://baalda.com/blog/free-notion-alternative-for-teams
Site: Baalda, https://baalda.com
Published: 2026-10-13

**Short answer.** For three people and no server, AFFiNE's free tier. For a free team wiki you host, Docmost or Outline Community Edition. For Notion-style databases, AppFlowy or AFFiNE. For plain markdown files with live editing, Baalda, free for two on its managed backend and unlimited self-hosted. Notion Free stops at 1,000 blocks once a workspace has 2 or more owners.

Notion's Free plan stops being free for a team sooner than most people notice. Notion's own help page lists a Free workspace with 2 or more owners at "1,000 blocks per workspace", and every paragraph, heading and list item is a block. A small team writing meeting notes uses that up in weeks, and then the workspace has to upgrade.

So the real question behind "free Notion alternative for teams" is which tools stay free once several people are writing in them, and what you give up to get that. There are two honest routes: a hosted free tier with a member cap, or open-source software you run yourself. Every limit below is from each tool's own pricing or documentation page, checked on 13 October 2026.

## Which Notion alternatives are free for a team?

| Tool | Free for a team | First paid tier | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notion | 1,000 blocks once there are 2+ owners, up to 10 guests | Plus, $10 per seat a month | No |
| AFFiNE | Up to 3 members per workspace, 10 GB, 7-day history | Pro $6.75 a month, Team $10 per seat a month | Editor MIT, backend source-available |
| Docmost | Community edition, self-hosted, no member cap stated | Business $6 per seat a month, 10-seat minimum | AGPL-3.0 core |
| Outline | Community Edition, self-hosted, no AI and no guests | Cloud from $10 a month for up to 10 members | BSL 1.1, source-available |
| AppFlowy | Free is for 1 workspace owner, or self-host | Pro $16 per member a month | AGPL-3.0 |
| Anytype | 100 MB remote storage, 10 shared channels | From $4 a month | Source-available |
| Logseq | Free, no team plan, live collaboration in alpha | None for teams | AGPL-3.0 |
| Obsidian | The app is free, sharing needs Sync for everyone | Sync $4 per user a month | No |
| Baalda | 2 people and 1 synced vault, unlimited when self-hosted | Team $10 per seat a month, minimum 3 | Apache-2.0 |

Prices are per month billed annually where the page offers both.

## Which ones are free with no member limit?

Only the self-hosted ones. **Docmost Community**, **Outline Community Edition** and **Baalda** on your own server put no plan limit on people when you run the server. What you pay instead is the time to run it: a server, backups, updates and someone who owns them.

- **Docmost** is the nearest thing to a self-hosted Notion-style wiki: spaces, pages, live co-editing. AI and SSO are in the paid Business edition.
- **Outline** is a polished team knowledge base. The self-hosted Community Edition leaves out AI and guest access.

AppFlowy is the closest to Notion's databases and views, and its desktop app runs local AI through Ollama for free. Its hosted Free plan is for one workspace owner, so a team either pays $16 per member a month or self-hosts AppFlowy Cloud under its own terms.

## Which hosted free tiers work for a small team?

**AFFiNE** is the most generous hosted free tier for a team of three: up to 3 members per workspace, 10 GB of storage and 7 days of history, with documents and whiteboards in one place. A fourth person means Pro, which allows up to 10 members, or Team at $10 per seat.

**Baalda's** managed backend is free for 2 people and 1 synced vault, which covers a founder pair or a two-person consultancy. From three people it is $10 per seat a month, or $110 per seat a year.

**Notion** itself is fine for a team while it stays under 1,000 blocks. Its Free plan also allows up to 10 guests and keeps 7 days of page history.

## What do the free Notion alternatives give up?

Mostly databases. Notion's tables, relations and views are what most teams actually depend on, and only AppFlowy and AFFiNE try to match them. Docmost, Outline, Logseq, Obsidian and Baalda are documents first.

The second trade is where the notes live. Notion, AFFiNE, Docmost, Outline, AppFlowy and Anytype keep your pages in their own database or format, and leaving means an export. Notion's export, for example, turns a full-page database into a CSV with a markdown file for each page. Logseq, Obsidian and Baalda store plain markdown files, so there is nothing to export.

We ranked the wider field, by the reason a team leaves Notion, in [best Notion alternatives in 2026](/blog/best-notion-alternatives).

## Which free Notion alternative should a team pick?

- **You need Notion-style databases:** AppFlowy, self-hosted, or AFFiNE.
- **You are three people and want no server:** AFFiNE's free tier.
- **You want a free team wiki and can run a server:** Docmost or Outline.
- **You want the notes to stay plain files the team owns, with live editing:** Baalda, free for two on the managed backend or unlimited self-hosted.

Baalda is the wrong pick if the team runs on databases: it has none, and a project tracker built on relations does not translate into markdown. If you are moving written knowledge rather than tables, the comparison page [Baalda vs Notion](/compare/notion) covers what carries over.

## FAQ

### Is Notion free for teams?

Only up to a point. Notion's help page lists a Free workspace with 2 or more owners at 1,000 blocks per workspace, after which it has to upgrade, and every paragraph, heading and list item counts as a block. The Free plan allows up to 10 guests and 7 days of page history. Plus is $10 per seat a month.

### What is the best free Notion alternative for a small team?

For up to three people with no server, AFFiNE: its free tier allows up to 3 members per workspace with 10 GB of storage. For a team that can run a server, Docmost Community or Outline Community Edition are free with no plan limit on members. Baalda's managed backend is free for 2 people and 1 synced vault.

### Which free Notion alternative has databases?

AppFlowy and AFFiNE are the two that try to match Notion's databases and views. AppFlowy's hosted Free plan is for one workspace owner, so a team pays $16 per member a month or self-hosts. Docmost, Outline, Logseq, Obsidian and Baalda are built around documents rather than tables.