mdSilo 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?
Compare mdSilo with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Foam Zettlr Athens Research org-roam SilverBullet zk NoteDiscovery Outline Desktop Many Notes Notabase Tangent Notes
Compare Outline with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Docusaurus Memos Mark Text Joplin Plane SiYuan Logseq Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable MkDocs Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian Linkwarden BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Omnivore OpenProject Answer Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr Quartz VNote Wallabag MarkText Workspace Planka Self-hosted LiveSync Shiori Leantime Linkding Blinko git-bug Kanboard Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor Read the Docs nb Notes Floccus Dillinger Kaneo Dendron Buku Athens Research org-roam Taskwarrior Markor Sync Livebook QOwnNotes SilverBullet TagSpaces MediaWiki DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry MDwiki Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next Raneto NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote BatNoter Documize Community Notea AppFlowy Cloud Jotty Django Wiki ZenTao Atomic Server Otter Wiki Knowledge RocketNotes QuillPad Beavers Notes XWiki Outline Desktop Writing Many Notes LeafWiki Notabase Notesnook Sync Server Daux.io Realms Wiki Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature mdSilo Outline Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License AGPL-3.0 BSL-1.1 Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 1,024 MB Deployment source, binary docker GitHub stars ★ 849 ★ 40,034 First released 2022 2017 Replaces Obsidian, Roam Research Notion, Confluence
Why pick each one
Choose mdSilo if… Released under the AGPL-3.0 license Easy to set up — beginner-friendly Written in TypeScript Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM mdSilo details Choose Outline if… Polished team wiki Great search Strong integrations Outline details
Frequently asked questions Is mdSilo or Outline better? Neither is universally better. Outline has the larger community, while mdSilo is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are mdSilo and Outline free and open-source? Yes. mdSilo is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Outline under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run mdSilo and Outline with Docker? mdSilo: check the project docs for container support. Outline: yes.