Notable 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?
FeatureNotableOutline
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseAGPL-3.0BSL-1.1
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentbinarydocker
GitHub stars★ 23,496★ 40,034
First released20182017
ReplacesEvernote, NotionNotion, Confluence

Why pick each one

Choose Notable if…

  • Notes stay as portable files
  • Simple and focused
Notable details

Choose Outline if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is Notable or Outline better?

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

Are Notable and Outline free and open-source?

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

Can I run Notable and Outline with Docker?

Notable: check the project docs for container support. Outline: yes.

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