Outline vs Reor
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Outline
Team knowledge base and wiki
VS
Reor
Archived
AI-powered local-first personal knowledge management app
| Feature | Outline | Reor |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | BSL-1.1 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 40,682 | ★ 8,551 |
| First released | 2017 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | Evernote, Notion |
What are Outline and Reor?
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
Reor
Reor is an open-source, private, local-first AI note-taking application. It automatically links related notes, runs AI models locally, and stores everything as plain Markdown files on your machine.
- Local AI models
- Automatic note linking
- Plain Markdown storage
- Semantic search
Outline vs Reor: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Reor's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Outline is actively maintained. Outline is written in TypeScript, while Reor is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — BSL-1.1 for Outline versus AGPL-3.0 for Reor. Outline is the more established project (first released 2017), while Reor arrived in 2024. Outline has the considerably larger community, at 40,682 GitHub stars versus 8,551. Outline lists first-class Docker deployment; Reor does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Outline if…
- Polished team wiki
- Great search
- Strong integrations
Watch out for
- Requires Postgres and Redis
- BSL is not fully open source
Choose Reor if…
- AI features without sending data away
- Notes stay as portable files
Watch out for
- AI features need more RAM
- Younger project
Frequently asked questions
Is Outline or Reor better?
Neither is universally better. Outline has the larger community, while Reor is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Outline and Reor free and open-source?
Yes. Outline is licensed under BSL-1.1 and Reor under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Outline and Reor with Docker?
Outline: yes. Reor: check the project docs for container support.