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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 (opens in a new tab) 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.
  • Aliases: aliases: [PAC, Pompe à chaleur] (or alias:) in the frontmatter becomes the page's aliases or the record's 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.
  • Sharing: permissions are not carried over. Invite members or share single pages – see Sharing and publishing.
  • 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.

Why move?

  • Completely open source: all of the source code is on GitHub (opens in a new tab) 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.
  • No tracking.

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