org-roam 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 org-roam with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Foam Zettlr Athens Research SilverBullet zk NoteDiscovery Outline Desktop 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 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 mdSilo Daux.io Realms Wiki Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature org-roam Outline Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License GPL-3.0 BSL-1.1 Language Emacs Lisp TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 128 MB 1,024 MB Deployment source docker GitHub stars ★ 6,007 ★ 40,034 First released 2020 2017 Replaces Roam Research, Obsidian Notion, Confluence
Why pick each one
Choose org-roam if… Released under the GPL-3.0 license Mature project with 6k GitHub stars Written in Emacs Lisp Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM org-roam details Choose Outline if… Polished team wiki Great search Strong integrations Outline details
Frequently asked questions Is org-roam 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 org-roam and Outline free and open-source? Yes. org-roam is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Outline under BSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run org-roam and Outline with Docker? org-roam: check the project docs for container support. Outline: yes.