AFFiNE vs Stack
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AFFiNE
This app combines an infinite whiteboard with notes, documents, and tasks, enhanced by AI. Effortlessly convert visual ideas into text and manage all your projects in one unified workspace. It's designed for visual thinkers and teams to streamline workflows and organize information effectively.
- Infinite whiteboard for visual brainstorming
- Convert sketches to organized notes/documents
- All-in-one project, task, and document management
- AI assistance for writing, summarizing, and answering
- Real-time collaboration on docs and whiteboards
- Cross-device synchronization
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AFFiNE is an open-source, local-first workspace for notes, docs, whiteboards, tasks, knowledge bases, Markdown, and AI. Built in public and trusted by a global open-source community with around 70K GitHub stars and more than 7 million downloads, AFFiNE gives you one place to write, draw, plan, organize knowledge, and keep control of your work. Whether you're capturing personal ideas, organizing class notes, planning a project with a team, building a second brain, or mapping a complex workflow, AFFiNE helps you move from scattered thoughts to structured work without switching between separate note, whiteboard, and task apps. WHY AFFiNE? OPEN-SOURCE AND LOCAL-FIRST AFFiNE started as an open-source project and continues to focus on transparent, user-owned knowledge work. - Work with a product built around openness and data control - Use local-first workflows for personal knowledge and project planning - Choose AFFiNE Cloud or self-hosted workflows for your workspace - Keep Markdown and portability at the center of your writing system NOTES & DOCS Write everything from quick notes to long-form documents. - Capture ideas, journals, meeting notes, class notes, and project plans - Structure information with flexible blocks and connected pages - Use Markdown for clear, portable writing - Turn rough thoughts into organized documents with AI WHITEBOARDS & VISUAL THINKING Switch from structured documents to an infinite canvas whenever ideas need space. - Create mind maps, diagrams, visual notes, and brainstorming boards - Plan product ideas, research flows, study maps, or team workflows - Connect visual thinking with written notes instead of keeping them in separate tools TASKS & PROJECTS Bring planning and execution into the same workspace. - Track to-dos, project notes, decisions, and next steps - Keep tasks close to the documents and whiteboards that explain the work - Organize personal workflows, student projects, creator work, and team planning AI FOR KNOWLEDGE WORK Use AI to help you write, summarize, and structure ideas. - Draft notes and documents faster - Summarize messy information into clearer outlines - Turn brainstorming into structured next steps - Use AI inside the workspace where your context already lives FOR PERSONAL USE AFFiNE works for notes, journals, study planning, research, reading lists, personal knowledge management, and second-brain workflows. FOR TEAMS AND SELF-HOSTED WORKFLOWS Use AFFiNE for shared project knowledge, planning, docs, visual collaboration, and self-hosted workspace needs. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Keep working across iPhone, iPad, desktop, and web. Start with a thought on mobile, expand it on a canvas, and turn it into organized knowledge when you're back at your desk. AFFiNE is for people who want the flexibility of documents, the freedom of a whiteboard, the structure of tasks, and the trust of open-source software in one workspace. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Stack
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Stack is a project planner built the way a Mac app should be. Lay work out on boards, see the same work on a calendar, and watch it run on a timeline — on iPhone, iPad and Mac, with everything synced privately through your own iCloud. BOARDS THAT MOVE Lists and tasks you can drag anywhere. Colour-coded labels, cover images, checklists, due dates, priorities, attachments and comments. Give a board a key and every task gets a number you can quote — HRB-14. THREE WAYS TO SEE THE SAME WORK Columns when you are running the work. One long list when you are working through it. A month calendar when you need to know what lands when — and a timeline of lanes and bars when you need to see the whole project at once. PLAN ITEMS, NOT JUST TASKS "Design freeze". "Launch". Dates a project has to remember that are nobody's to-do. They sit on the calendar and the timeline beside the work without pretending to be tasks. TODAY, THIS WEEK, FLAGGED Saved views that cut across every board, so you can start the day in one place instead of opening four boards to find out what is due. FIND ANYTHING Full-text search across every board — titles, descriptions, checklists and attachment names — with the board and list each result came from. SHARE A BOARD Invite someone with a link. They see your board, you see their edits, and it all runs on iCloud sharing. No accounts to create, no seats to buy. EVERYWHERE YOU WORK Quick add from anywhere. A menu bar item on Mac. A share extension so anything you are looking at can become a task. A home-screen widget for what is due today. Shortcuts and Siri support for the rest. WORKS OFFLINE, ALWAYS Every read and every write happens on your device first. Sync catches up when the network does. A plane, a basement, a bad hotel — the app does not care. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No server. No tracking. No ads. Your boards live on your device and sync through your personal iCloud — nobody else can see them, including us. Free, with no subscription and nothing to unlock. Built natively for iPhone, iPad and Mac, localized into six languages, and designed to feel at home on every screen size.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Stack at none against AFFiNE's 3. Stack also leads on ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. AFFiNE sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Stack asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | AFFiNE | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (32 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 42.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 32 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | — |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.5 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 239 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ToEverything | SouthIndus Labs |
In-app purchases
AFFiNE
- AFFiNE Pro Monthly$7.991 Month
- AFFiNE Pro Yearly$81.001 Year
- AFFiNE AI Yearly$106.991 Year
Stack
No in-app purchases









