# Moving from Notion, AppFlowy, Obsidian, Confluence, Evernote and Google Docs

Flowplan is an open-source alternative to Notion, Confluence and AppFlowy under the AGPL-3.0. This is how you bring over pages, databases, images and files from the tool you use now.

## Confluence, Evernote, Google Docs and Obsidian

Under **Settings → Import & export → Import** choose the target space at the top and, at **Confluence, Evernote, Google Docs or Obsidian**, the source (or let it be detected) and whether you want a page tree or a **new database**. Then choose the file:

1. Flowplan uploads the file (with a progress bar) and shows a **preview**: how many pages, folders, files (with their size) and tags will be imported, and what will not work – such as encrypted text, unsupported macros or images missing from the export.
2. **Import** creates everything in one step. If something fails, nothing is left half imported.

For all sources:

- End-to-end encrypted spaces cannot be targets (the server sees no plaintext there).
- You need write access to the target space; the workspace's storage quota and your personal limit are checked first (the preview already warns).
- Limits per import: 100 MB, 500 pages (as a database: 5,000 records), 10 MB per file in the ZIP.
- The content is cleaned like when pasting: scripts, forms and embedded foreign pages are dropped. File names are cleaned; files a browser could run (HTML, SVG) are only stored for download.
- Links between imported pages point to the new pages. Images and attachments are uploaded – every file once, even if several pages show it.
- **As a new database**, every note becomes a record with the properties *Tags*, *Created*, *Updated*, *Folder* (the folder path) and – where present – *Source*. As pages, tags appear as `#tag` at the top of the page.

## From Notion

1. In Notion: **Settings → Export** (for the whole workspace) or **Export** in a page's **…** menu. Choose the format **Markdown & CSV** and turn on **Include subpages**.
2. In Flowplan: **Settings → Import & export → Import**, choose the target space at the top and the ZIP at **Notion, AppFlowy or Markdown export (ZIP)**.
3. Done – the import runs in one step. If it fails, nothing is left half imported.

What it turns into:

- Every Markdown file becomes a page, every folder named like a page holds its sub-pages. The IDs Notion appends to file and folder names are dropped.
- Every CSV file becomes a database. When both versions are there, Flowplan takes `Name_all.csv` (all records) instead of the current view.
- Columns get a fitting type: numbers, checkboxes, dates (also in Notion's format "September 24, 2026") and selects with their options; the rest stays text.
- Record pages are matched to their records as their document.
- Images and files the pages refer to are uploaded.
- Large exports that Notion splits into several ZIP files inside the ZIP are recognised.

Limits per import: 100 MB, 500 pages and 5,000 records per table. Export larger workspaces in parts, for instance page by page.

## From AppFlowy

1. In AppFlowy, export pages as **Markdown** and databases as **CSV**.
2. Put the files into one folder – sub-folders become sub-pages – and make a ZIP of it.
3. Import it in Flowplan under **Settings → Import & export → Import**.

Markdown becomes pages, CSV becomes databases; linked images and files come along.

## From Confluence

1. In Confluence: **Space settings → Export** (Confluence Cloud: **Space settings → Export space**). Choose **HTML** or **XML**, each with all pages.
2. Import the ZIP in Flowplan as above (source **Confluence** or automatic).

What it turns into:

- The space's **page tree** becomes the page tree in Flowplan (from `index.html` or the parent pages in `entities.xml`; where a page is missing there, the breadcrumbs help).
- **Info, tip, note and warning macros** become callouts (info → note, tip → tip, note → warning, warning → caution), **code macros** code blocks, **expand** toggles, **task lists** tasks with their status.
- **Images** and **attachments** are uploaded; attachments the text does not show are listed as links at the end of the page. **Links to other pages** of the space point to the imported pages.
- In the XML export only the current version of each page counts; older versions and blog posts are skipped. Creation and modification dates are kept.
- Macros without a counterpart (such as table of contents or Jira queries) are dropped; the preview names them.

## From Evernote

1. In Evernote, save a notebook via **… → Export notebook** as **ENEX**. Put several notebooks into one ZIP.
2. Import the `.enex` file or the ZIP in Flowplan.

What it turns into:

- Every **note** becomes a page; with several notebooks, every notebook becomes a page with its notes below.
- The note text (ENML) becomes normal text with formatting, lists and tables; **checkboxes** become tasks.
- **Images and attachments** (embedded in the ENEX file) are uploaded and shown where they were in the text; PDFs and other files as links. Attachments without a place in the text go to the end.
- **Tags**, **created**/**updated** and the **source address** are kept – best import as a new database, then they are properties to filter and sort by.
- Encrypted text cannot be imported; the preview warns.

## From Google Docs

1. At [takeout.google.com](https://takeout.google.com) choose **Drive** and set the format for documents to **HTML** (recommended) or **Microsoft Word**. Single documents also work via **File → Download → Web page (.html, zipped)** or **Microsoft Word (.docx)**.
2. Import the Takeout ZIP, the web page ZIP or the `.docx` file in Flowplan (source **Google Docs**).

What it turns into:

- Every document becomes a page, **Drive folders** become parent pages.
- Headings, bold, italic, underline, strike-through, **nested lists**, tables and links come along; Google's redirect links point straight to their target again.
- **Images** are uploaded – including the ones embedded in the HTML.
- Word files: paragraphs, headings, lists (numbered and bulleted, also nested), tables (with merged columns), links and images. Comments, footnotes and headers/footers are dropped.

## From Obsidian and other Markdown folders

- **A vault as pages:** make a ZIP of the vault folder (with its `.obsidian` folder) and import it under **Settings → Import & export → Import** – via **Confluence, Evernote, Google Docs or Obsidian** with a preview, or via the Notion/Markdown import, which recognises a vault as well.
  - **Folders** become pages with their notes below. A **folder note** (`Projects/Projects.md` or `Projects.md` next to the folder) becomes the folder's page itself.
  - **Wikilinks** `[[Page]]`, `[[Page|text]]`, `[[Folder/Page]]` and `[[Page#Heading]]` become links to the imported pages – resolved like Obsidian does, by path or file name. Links to notes that do not exist stay text.
  - **Embedded files** `![[image.png]]` become images, `![[file.pdf]]` file links; embedded notes `![[Note]]` become links.
  - **Callouts** such as `> [!note]` or `> [!warning] Title` become callouts of the matching kind.
  - **Tags** from the frontmatter (`tags:`) and in the text (`#tag`, not in code) are collected: on pages as `#tag` at the top, in a new database in the *Tags* property – together with *Folder* for where a note came from.
- **Notes with frontmatter into an existing database:** in a database choose **Import CSV or Markdown** and pick the `.md` files or a ZIP. The YAML properties become columns – see [Frontmatter](/import-export-versions#frontmatter-records-as-markdown-files).
- **Aliases:** `aliases: [PAC, Pompe à chaleur]` (or `alias:`) in the frontmatter becomes the page's [aliases](/pages-and-spaces#aliases) or the record's [Aliases](/properties-and-formulas#aliases) property. @ mentions, search and unlinked mentions then also find "Chauffage" by "PAC", and the Markdown export writes them back as `aliases:`.

## After the move

- **Check links:** links between imported pages point to the new pages; links to pages outside the export still point to the old tool.
- **Set up views:** an import creates one table per database. Add board, calendar, gallery or timeline afterwards – see [Views](/views).
- **Sharing:** permissions are not carried over. Invite members or share single pages – see [Sharing and publishing](/sharing).
- **Your data stays portable:** Flowplan exports again at any time as Markdown with frontmatter, CSV and ZIP, scheduled and pushed to Git if you like – see [Import, export and versions](/import-export-versions).

## Why move?

- **Completely open source:** all of the source code is on [GitHub](https://github.com/yannicschuller/flowplan) under the AGPL-3.0 – with no closed enterprise edition and no features behind a licence.
- **Your data, your server:** hosted on flowplan.org in Germany or as one Docker container on your own server – see [Installation](/installation).
- **No tracking.**