NoteDiscovery 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.
NoteDiscovery
Self-hosted Markdown knowledge base with graph view
VS
Outline
Team knowledge base and wiki
| Feature | NoteDiscovery | Outline |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | BSL-1.1 |
| Language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,812 | ★ 40,682 |
| First released | 2024 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Obsidian, Notion | Notion, Confluence |
What are NoteDiscovery and Outline?
NoteDiscovery
NoteDiscovery is a self-hosted Markdown knowledge base featuring wikilinks, a graph view, a drawing editor, and LaTeX and Mermaid rendering. It is designed for building and exploring a connected personal knowledge base.
- Wikilinks and graph view
- Drawing editor
- LaTeX and Mermaid support
- Self-hosted knowledge base
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
NoteDiscovery vs Outline: key differences
NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript, while Outline is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — MIT for NoteDiscovery versus BSL-1.1 for Outline. NoteDiscovery is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Outline. Outline is the more established project (first released 2017), while NoteDiscovery arrived in 2024. Outline has the considerably larger community, at 40,682 GitHub stars versus 2,812.
Why pick each one
Choose NoteDiscovery if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Choose Outline if…
- Polished team wiki
- Great search
- Strong integrations
Watch out for
- Requires Postgres and Redis
- BSL is not fully open source
Frequently asked questions
Is NoteDiscovery or Outline better?
Neither is universally better. Outline has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are NoteDiscovery and Outline free and open-source?
Yes. NoteDiscovery is licensed under MIT and Outline under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NoteDiscovery and Outline with Docker?
NoteDiscovery: yes. Outline: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, NoteDiscovery or Outline?
NoteDiscovery has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Outline. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.