In short. Obsidian is the strongest pick for local-first power users who live in a single device and want the deepest plugin ecosystem. NoteDiscovery is the better fit for teams who want a browser-based, VPS-hosted vault with no per-device install. AppFlowy is the collaborative option — a structured Notion replacement with databases alongside your notes. None of the three is strictly better; they solve different problems.
At a Glance
| Tool | Hosting model | Sync cost | AI integration | Markdown | Graph view | License | RAM needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NoteDiscovery | Self-hosted, Docker, browser-based | None — one server copy | MCP (Claude, Cursor) | Plain .md files | Yes | MIT | Minimal (single container) |
| Obsidian | Desktop-first, optional Obsidian Sync | $4–8/month for Obsidian Sync | Community plugins only | Plain .md files | Yes | Proprietary (free to use) | N/A — runs locally, not server-hosted |
| AppFlowy | Self-hosted (AppFlowy Cloud) or local | None if self-hosted | Built-in AI features | Block-based, not plain .md | No | AGPL-3.0 | ~2–4 GB (Cloud stack: API, auth, Postgres, Redis, S3-compatible storage) |
NoteDiscovery: Best Browser-Based Obsidian Alternative
NoteDiscovery runs as a single Docker container, stores notes as plain Markdown files, and is MCP-ready out of the box for AI assistants like Claude and Cursor. It’s genuinely early-stage — a solo-maintained project that doesn’t yet match Obsidian’s plugin depth — but it’s growing, and for a team that just wants a shared, browser-accessible obsidian alternative self hosted vault, it’s the lowest-friction option here. Best for: VPS teams who want zero per-device setup. Contabo fit: a Cloud VPS 4 (€4.50/month) is plenty.
Obsidian: Best for Local-First Power Users
Obsidian is desktop-first, with well over 1,000 community plugins covering everything from spaced repetition to database-style queries. Obsidian Sync, the official cross-device syncing service, is optional and costs roughly $4–8 per month; without it, Obsidian is a purely local, single-device app. It is not self-hostable in the traditional server sense — there’s no official server mode, so “self-hosting” Obsidian in practice means running your own file-sync layer (Syncthing, rsync, or similar) underneath it rather than hosting the app itself. Best for: solo knowledge workers who live primarily in one device and want the deepest plugin ecosystem available.
AppFlowy: Best Notion Replacement with Self-Hosting
AppFlowy combines structured documents, databases (grid, kanban, and calendar views), and notes in one AGPL-3.0-licensed, Rust-backed app. The self-hosted path is AppFlowy Cloud, which is a genuine multi-service stack — an API server, GoTrue for auth, PostgreSQL, Redis, and MinIO for S3-compatible storage — deployed via Docker Compose. That’s meaningfully heavier than NoteDiscovery’s single container, but it buys you Notion-style databases and views that neither NoteDiscovery nor Obsidian tries to replicate. Best for: teams migrating from Notion who need structured project views alongside their notes. Contabo fit: a Cloud VPS 6 to 8 gives the multi-service stack comfortable headroom.
Which Should You Choose?
A few clear signals point to each option:
- Want VPS-accessible team notes, no per-device installs, and don’t need Notion-style databases? → NoteDiscovery.
- Want the deepest plugin ecosystem and don’t mind staying local-first on one primary device? → Obsidian.
- Need structured databases (kanban, grid, calendar) alongside your notes for a team migrating off Notion? → AppFlowy.
Hosting on Contabo
NoteDiscovery’s single-container footprint runs comfortably on a Cloud VPS 4 (€4.50/month). AppFlowy’s heavier multi-service stack is a better fit for a Cloud VPS 8 (€14/month), given the API server, auth service, Postgres, Redis, and object storage all running together. Obsidian itself needs no server — but if you’re replacing Obsidian Sync’s subscription with your own file-sync layer, that’s exactly the VPS cost Obsidian Sync would otherwise have covered. For any of these, pointing note attachments or backups at Contabo Object Storage keeps the VPS disk quota free for the application itself.
FAQ about Self-Hosted Notes
Not in the traditional server sense — there’s no official Obsidian server mode. What people usually mean by “self-hosting Obsidian” is running their own sync layer (Syncthing, a private Git repo, or a WebDAV/rsync setup) underneath the desktop app instead of paying for Obsidian Sync. The app itself always runs locally on each device.
Syncthing is the most common free, self-hosted answer — it syncs your Obsidian vault’s Markdown files between devices without a subscription, running on a VPS or even a home server. If you’re open to switching apps rather than just the sync layer, NoteDiscovery sidesteps the sync question entirely by keeping one browser-accessible copy on your server.
For teams specifically prioritizing self-hosting and data ownership, yes — Notion has no self-hosted option at all, so any self-hostable tool wins that comparison by default. AppFlowy specifically gets closer to Notion’s actual feature set (databases, kanban, calendar views) than most self-hosted wikis, though it’s a younger, less battle-tested project than Notion itself, and the self-hosted server-side stack takes more setup than a single-container app like NoteDiscovery.
Of the three compared here, NoteDiscovery is the lightest by a clear margin — a single Docker container with no separate database service, running comfortably on a small VPS. AppFlowy’s self-hosted stack needs several cooperating services (API, auth, Postgres, Redis, object storage) and meaningfully more RAM as a result.
