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Self-hosted alternative to Notion

Outline is a free, source-available Notion alternative for team wikis and documents that are quick to search. Notion charges per member; self-hosted Outline has no per-member price, though it has no Notion-style databases.

1 alternative Free app Our pick: Outline

At a glance

App Good for Code Import from Notion Ease of use
Outline Team handbooks, how-to guides and meeting notes that people can find quickly Code Source-available Import from Notion Yes Some setup

Why look for an alternative to Notion?

Notion is an all-in-one workspace: documents, wikis, databases, boards and calendars on pages you can nest and link together. Many teams use it as their company wiki.

Teams look for an alternative for a few reasons. Notion charges per member, so the bill grows with every hire, and its AI features have been an extra cost on many plans. Large workspaces can feel slow, and pages tend to sprawl when everything can be anything. And the whole workspace lives on Notion's servers. If what your team mostly needs is a tidy, searchable wiki, a self-hosted document tool such as Outline does that job on your own server with no price per member.

How Outline compares

Outline

A fast team wiki for your handbook, how-tos and meeting notes.

A focused wiki for documents. It covers handbooks, how-to guides, meeting notes and project pages with a fast editor, nested documents and quick search, but it has no databases, boards or calendars like Notion.

What you gain
  • No price per member, however big the team gets
  • Your documents stay on your own server
  • A focused, quick editor without clutter
What is different
  • Outline is for documents; it has no databases or boards like Notion
  • It needs a sign-in service such as Google Workspace or Microsoft, as there are no Outline passwords
  • Fewer add-ons than Confluence
Some setup Source-available · BUSL-1.1
Deploy Outline About Outline

Moving from Notion

Export your Notion workspace as Markdown and CSV or HTML, then use Outline's Notion import in its settings. Pages keep their text, headings, images and nesting. Notion databases do not become databases in Outline, so check those pages after the import and keep any that are really trackers in a tool built for tables, such as Baserow.

Questions

What is the best self-hosted alternative to Notion?

Outline is the free, self-hosted alternative to Notion for team docs and wikis in the catalogue today. A focused wiki for documents. It covers handbooks, how-to guides, meeting notes and project pages with a fast editor, nested documents and quick search, but it has no databases, boards or calendars like Notion.

Can Outline replace Notion's databases?

No. Outline is for documents. For Notion-style tables, boards and linked records, pair it with a database app such as Baserow.

Is Outline open source?

Outline's code is public under the Business Source License. It is free to run for your own team, but you may not sell it as a hosted wiki service to others.

Is it really free?

Yes, the app is free. To run them you need Cloudgate and a server. Use hosted Cloudgate, which can also provide the server, or install Cloudgate on a server of your own for free. Cloudgate's plans and prices are at cloudgate.octabyte.io/pricing. One server can run several apps.

Do I need a developer?

No. Cloudgate installs the app on your server and gives it a secure web address. You use it in your browser.