Docmost vs Outline: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to Notion, Confluence. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
Quick answer: Docmost and Outline are both modern collaborative wikis with similar infrastructure (PostgreSQL + Redis). The real difference is the license: Docmost is AGPL-3.0 (real open source); Outline is BUSL-1.1 (not OSI, though the code is public) and has more years of development.
| Docmost | Outline | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Productivity | Productivity |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BUSL-1.1 |
| GitHub stars | ~14k | ~30k |
| Tech stack | NestJS, React, PostgreSQL | Node.js, React, PostgreSQL, Redis |
| Replaces | Confluence, Notion | Confluence, Notion |
Outline has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
Docmost
Modern collaborative wiki, an open source alternative to Confluence.
Pros
- Very fast-growing community and feature set
Things to consider
- Still a young project compared to Confluence
Outline
Fast, elegant team wiki, an alternative to Confluence.
Pros
- Very polished interface, fast team adoption
Things to consider
- BUSL-1.1 license restricts offering it as a competing SaaS
Key features
Docmost
- Spaces and team permissions
- Real-time collaborative editing
- Comments and page versioning
Outline
- Real-time collaborative editing
- Instant search
- Collections and team permissions
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Go to Stack BuilderFrequently asked questions
Docmost or Outline: which should you pick?
Both are modern collaborative wikis with real-time editing. Docmost is a younger project but with a real AGPL-3.0 license; Outline has been around longer with a very polished focus on search and collections, though its BUSL-1.1 license isn't OSI.
What do you need to deploy each one?
Both need PostgreSQL and Redis — the infrastructure requirements are very similar between the two.
Which one is more mature?
Outline has spent more years in active development focused on its use case. Docmost is a more recent project, with a good development pace but less time maturing in production.