Outline vs QST
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 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 mdSilo Daux.io Realms Wiki Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx
Compare QST with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes
Feature Outline QST Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License BSL-1.1 GPL-2.0 Language TypeScript Perl Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 1,024 MB 512 MB Deployment docker bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 40,034 — First released 2017 2020 Replaces Notion, Confluence —
Why pick each one
Choose Outline if… Polished team wiki Great search Strong integrations Outline details Choose QST if… Released under the GPL-2.0 license Written in Perl Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM QST details
Frequently asked questions Is Outline or QST 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 Outline and QST free and open-source? Yes. Outline is licensed under BSL-1.1 and QST under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Outline and QST with Docker? Outline: yes. QST: check the project docs for container support.