Outline Desktop 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 Outline Desktop 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 Many Notes Notabase mdSilo 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 Writing Many Notes LeafWiki Notabase Notesnook Sync Server mdSilo Daux.io Realms Wiki Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature Outline Desktop Outline Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License AGPL-3.0 BSL-1.1 Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 128 MB 1,024 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal docker GitHub stars ★ 1,228 ★ 40,034 First released 2021 2017 Replaces Notion, Obsidian Notion, Confluence
Why pick each one
Choose Outline if… Polished team wiki Great search Strong integrations Outline details
Frequently asked questions Is Outline Desktop or Outline better? Neither is universally better. Outline has the larger community, while Outline Desktop is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Outline Desktop and Outline free and open-source? Yes. Outline Desktop is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Outline under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Outline Desktop and Outline with Docker? Outline Desktop: yes. Outline: yes.