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Comparison · Collab

AFFiNE vs Passbolt

A side-by-side editorial comparison of AFFiNE and Passbolt — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

AFFiNE vs Passbolt: at a glance

FeatureAFFiNEPassbolt
SectorCollabCollab
Velocity score5.05.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesknowledge base, canary builds, security patches, self-hostedpassword-manager, access-control, sharing, session-management
Last editorial update2d ago2mo ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is AFFiNE?

AFFiNE's canaries stay on upkeep: a Swift Collections bump follows CVE and migration fixes.

AFFiNE ships a canary build almost daily, and nearly all of October has been dependency and infrastructure work. The newest, canary 915, bumps Apple's Swift Collections package to 1.7.4 for the native apps. Before it came a happy-dom code-execution CVE patch, payment-record repairs during a data migration, and non-root, read-only containers with multi-architecture Windows builds.

Read the full AFFiNE trajectory →

What is Passbolt?

Passbolt keeps rebuilding the sharing dialog because that is where its access model leaks.

Three consecutive releases have gone into permission transparency. 5.14 introduced confirmation prompts before editing shared resources and surfaced group members in the access list; 5.14.3 corrected two behaviours it got wrong; 5.15 adds badges showing whether a permission is added, modified or deleted, and lets a deletion be rolled back before confirmation. 5.15 also moves sessions into the database with a PurgeSessions command and a healthcheck reporting the active provider, and closes three externally reported bypasses around personal-folder sharing and V5 tag promotion.

Read the full Passbolt trajectory →

AFFiNE vs Passbolt: editorial side-by-side

A
AFFiNE
COLLAB
5.0

AFFiNE's canaries stay on upkeep: a Swift Collections bump follows CVE and migration fixes.

◆ Current state

AFFiNE ships a canary build almost daily, and nearly all of October has been dependency and infrastructure work. The newest, canary 915, bumps Apple's Swift Collections package to 1.7.4 for the native apps. Before it came a happy-dom code-execution CVE patch, payment-record repairs during a data migration, and non-root, read-only containers with multi-architecture Windows builds.

◆ Where it's heading

The feed reads like a team hardening the backend and toolchain ahead of a larger cutover: a payment-identity migration, stricter deployment defaults and steady Renovate bumps across web, server and native code. Feature work isn't visible in canaries this month; the last user-facing fix was October 12's blob-upload quota correction.

◆ Prediction

Expect the data migration to finish in the next canaries, followed by a stable release that bundles it; the entries don't show which user-facing feature is next.

P
Passbolt
COLLAB
5.0

Passbolt keeps rebuilding the sharing dialog because that is where its access model leaks.

◆ Current state

Three consecutive releases have gone into permission transparency. 5.14 introduced confirmation prompts before editing shared resources and surfaced group members in the access list; 5.14.3 corrected two behaviours it got wrong; 5.15 adds badges showing whether a permission is added, modified or deleted, and lets a deletion be rolled back before confirmation. 5.15 also moves sessions into the database with a PurgeSessions command and a healthcheck reporting the active provider, and closes three externally reported bypasses around personal-folder sharing and V5 tag promotion.

◆ Where it's heading

The product is treating accidental over-sharing as its primary risk, and the fix is repeated iteration on the moment of change rather than a new permission model. The company has said this is staged work — folder moves and richer preview dialogs are named as future extensions. In parallel the platform side is maturing for larger installs: database-backed sessions, edition switching in-app since 5.13, healthcheck coverage, SCIM administrator-deletion guards. Autofill has just started its own multi-release arc, with 5.15 explicitly the first step.

◆ Prediction

The next release should extend confirmation prompts to folder move operations, and the notes flag that the SSO egress guard will default to on. Autofill form classification is the other named thread, with a technical write-up promised after the following release.

Alternatives to AFFiNE and Passbolt

Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either AFFiNE or Passbolt.

See all AFFiNE alternatives → · See all Passbolt alternatives →

Recent activity from AFFiNE and Passbolt

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 2d agoAFFiNECanary 909: Windows static-link build fix
  2. 3d agoAFFiNECanary 915: Swift Collections bumped to 1.7.4
  3. 4d agoAFFiNECanary 907: happy-dom v21 patches code-execution CVE
  4. 6d agoAFFiNECanary 908: payment-record and upload fixes for data migration
  5. 7d agoAFFiNECanary 909: hardened containers, multi-arch Windows builds
  6. 17d agoAFFiNEAFFiNE fixes blob uploads after storage quota changes
  7. 2mo agoPassbolt5.15 adds database sessions and closes shared-tag permission bypasses
  8. 2mo agoPassbolt5.14.3 limits the permission dialog to actual secret changes
  9. 3mo agoPassbolt5.14 adds confirmation prompts before shared-resource edits
  10. 4mo agoPassbolt5.13 adds in-app switching between Community and Pro
  11. 5mo agoPassbolt5.12 makes the Safari extension generally available

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between AFFiNE and Passbolt?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. AFFiNE and Passbolt are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is AFFiNE better than Passbolt?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. AFFiNE and Passbolt are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to AFFiNE?

Top AFFiNE alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "AFFiNE alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/affine for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Passbolt?

Top Passbolt alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Passbolt alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/passbolt for the full list with editorial commentary on each.