SHSelfHostIndex

LeafWiki vs Outline

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
LE LeafWiki Lightweight self-hosted wiki with Markdown stored on disk VS OU Outline Team knowledge base and wiki
FeatureLeafWikiOutline
CategoryWikis & DocumentationNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseMITBSL-1.1
LanguageGoTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker
GitHub stars★ 997★ 40,034
First released20242017
ReplacesDokuWiki, ConfluenceNotion, Confluence

Why pick each one

Choose LeafWiki if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Go
LeafWiki details

Choose Outline if…

  • Polished team wiki
  • Great search
  • Strong integrations
Outline details

Frequently asked questions

Is LeafWiki or Outline better?

Neither is universally better. Outline has the larger community, while LeafWiki is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are LeafWiki and Outline free and open-source?

Yes. LeafWiki is licensed under MIT and Outline under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run LeafWiki and Outline with Docker?

LeafWiki: yes. Outline: yes.

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