Notion is $8/user/mo (Plus). Quiver is a self-hosted alternative at $0.99/mo. Here's when each makes sense.
| Quiver | Notion | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Self-hosted, your infra | Managed SaaS (cloud only) |
| Data location | Your server, your disk | Notion's cloud |
| Free tier | 50 snippets | Paid only |
| Pro pricing | $0.99/mo | $8/user/mo (Plus) |
| Dependencies | None (single binary + SQLite) | N/A (managed) |
| Setup time | ~30 seconds | Account signup |
| Dashboard | Built-in at /ui | Cloud dashboard |
| License | BSL 1.1 | Proprietary SaaS |
Quiver is a single Go binary with embedded SQLite. Install it with one command, and you are running in under a minute. Your data stays on your server.
curl -fsSL https://stockyard.dev/quiver/install.sh | sh
Teams evaluating Notion alongside Quiver tend to split on two axes: feature depth and data residency. Notion wins on feature depth — it is a mature product with integrations, mobile apps, and a dedicated support team. Quiver wins on residency — your knowledge snippets data lives on your server in a SQLite file you can inspect, back up, and migrate without asking anyone for permission.
Quiver runs as a single static binary with an embedded SQLite database. There is no application server, no cache layer, no background worker. One process handles HTTP requests and reads from and writes to the database file directly. This simplicity is the entire point — fewer moving parts means fewer things that can break at 2 AM.
Switching from Notion to Quiver is straightforward for most teams. Export your data from Notion (most services offer CSV or JSON export), then POST each record to Quiver's API. A migration script that reads the export and writes to /api/ endpoints typically takes less than 50 lines of code. The reverse migration is equally simple — Quiver's SQLite database is a standard file you can query with any SQLite client.
Single binary. Free to start. $0.99/mo for Pro.