SHSelfHostIndex

AppFlowy vs Outline

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
AppFlowy Open-source workspace and Notion alternative VS Outline Team knowledge base and wiki
FeatureAppFlowyOutline
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score100 · Excellent99 · Excellent
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseAGPL-3.0BSL-1.1
LanguageDartTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcedocker
GitHub stars★ 76,892★ 40,671
First released20212017
ReplacesNotion, EvernoteNotion, Confluence

What are AppFlowy and Outline?

AppFlowy

AppFlowy is an open-source workspace for notes, wikis, and project management designed as a privacy-first alternative to Notion. It can run locally and supports a self-hosted sync backend.

  • Notion-like blocks and databases
  • Local-first data
  • Self-hostable cloud backend
  • Cross-platform apps

Read the full AppFlowy guide →

Outline

Outline is a fast, collaborative knowledge base and wiki for teams with real-time editing and powerful search. It targets organizations that want a self-hosted documentation hub. It is deployed via Docker with PostgreSQL and Redis.

  • Real-time collaborative editing
  • Fast full-text search
  • SSO and team permissions
  • Slack and API integrations

Read the full Outline guide →

AppFlowy vs Outline: key differences

AppFlowy is written in Dart, while Outline is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for AppFlowy versus BSL-1.1 for Outline. Outline is the more established project (first released 2017), while AppFlowy arrived in 2021.

Why pick each one

Choose AppFlowy if…

  • Strong Notion alternative
  • Active development

Watch out for

  • Self-hosted backend is newer
  • Still maturing
AppFlowy details

Choose Outline if…

  • Polished team wiki
  • Great search
  • Strong integrations

Watch out for

  • Requires Postgres and Redis
  • BSL is not fully open source
Outline details

Frequently asked questions

Is AppFlowy or Outline better?

Neither is universally better. AppFlowy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are AppFlowy and Outline free and open-source?

Yes. AppFlowy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Outline under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run AppFlowy and Outline with Docker?

AppFlowy: yes. Outline: yes.

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