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Yannic S.
Yannic S.

Posted on AI-assisted

I built an open-source Notion alternative that runs in a single Docker container

#showdev #opensource #selfhosted #webdev

I wanted one place for my notes, project plans, wikis and whiteboards. It had to be open source and run on my own server, with no feature behind an enterprise licence and no tracking. Nothing I tried ticked every box, so I built it: Flowplan.

Writing with the slash menu while a colleague edits along, switching a database from table to board to calendar, and a whiteboard with sticky notes

Try it: live demo (no sign-up) · GitHub · docs

What it is

Flowplan is an open-source alternative to Notion and Confluence. Everything lives in one page tree:

  • Documents: a block editor with the / menu, Markdown shortcuts, math, Mermaid diagrams, footnotes, comments and version history. Several people can edit in real time.
  • Databases: 23 property types with relations and formulas, shown as a table, board, calendar, timeline, gallery, chart and more.
  • Whiteboards: sticky notes, connectors, mind maps and shape libraries.
  • A daily journal, handwritten notebooks with PDF annotation, and projects with tickets and sprints.
  • Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, plus a desktop app. All of them work offline.

A Flowplan database in board view

Self-hosting: one container, no extra services

This was the part I cared about most. A lot of self-hosted tools want Postgres, Redis, a search engine and a separate worker before you see a login page. Flowplan is a single container with SQLite:

docker run -d --name flowplan -p 3000:3000 \
  -v flowplan:/app/data \
  -e APP_URL=http://localhost:3000 \
  ghcr.io/yannicschuller/flowplan:latest
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Open http://localhost:3000 and create an account. The first account becomes the administrator. All data lives in one volume. Images are built for amd64 and arm64, so a Raspberry Pi works too. If you don't want to run it yourself, there is a hosted version on servers in Germany at app.flowplan.org.

What you can add when you need it:

  • Single sign-on with OIDC, LDAP or Active Directory, passkeys and two-factor sign-in
  • S3 for files and continuous database backups (Litestream), encrypted with your own key
  • Scheduled exports as Markdown to S3 or a Git repository
  • A Helm chart for Kubernetes

Your data stays yours

  • No tracking, and permissions down to a single database record.
  • Portable: export as Markdown with frontmatter, CSV or ZIP. Import from Notion, AppFlowy, Obsidian, Jira and Trello.
  • Optional AI: it is off by default. Admins switch it on per feature and per person, either fully local with Ollama or with your own key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini or any OpenAI-compatible service. You decide which pages it may read.

The stack

For those who like to look under the hood:

  • Next.js 16 and React 19, with the server and the UI in one app
  • SQLite through Node's built-in node:sqlite, so there is no database server to run
  • Tiptap 3 and Yjs for the editor and real-time collaboration
  • Expo for the iOS and Android apps, Electron for the desktop app
  • About 1,700 unit tests plus screenshot comparisons of the key screens run in CI

A Flowplan whiteboard

Where it's at

Flowplan is young: the first commit was in October 2026. It is already usable every day, and it is completely open source under the AGPL-3.0. There is no closed enterprise edition and no feature behind a licence key. The interface is available in English, German, French and Simplified Chinese.

I'd love your feedback

  • What would stop you from replacing Notion or Confluence with something self-hosted?
  • Which feature or integration is missing for your team?
  • If you try the demo, what felt off?

If you like the project, a ⭐ on GitHub helps a lot. You can also join the Discord or open an issue. Thanks for reading!

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