Anchor vs Focalboard

Comparing two open source alternatives to Notion. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

Anchor

AGPL-3.0

Offline-first, self-hostable note-taking app with rich text, tags, attachments, and cross-device sync via Docker.

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Focalboard

AGPL-3.0

Focalboard is an open-source, self-hosted project management tool — a free alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana for boards, docs, and team planning across every workflow.

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Side-by-side comparison

	Anchor	Focalboard
License	AGPL-3.0	AGPL-3.0
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	1,336	26,478
Forks	56	2,580
Open Issues	62	784
Last Commit	Sep 12, 2026	May 18, 2026
First Released	Dec 1, 2025	Oct 6, 2020
Categories	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools	Time & Task Management Tools Knowledge Management Tools Collaboration & Communication Tools
Tags	#notes #self hosted #offline-first #cross-platform #docker	#kanban #project management #collaboration #docker #self hosted

GitHub stars over time

Anchor1,336

Focalboard

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