[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":180},["ShallowReactive",2],{"seo-verification":3,"blog-outline-wiki-notion-self-hosted-vps-2-en":6},{"google":4,"bing":5},"EycwPY2XMyTkVzas3n1ygeNJFGAH513qrMjfDljzsMQ","",{"key":7,"data":8},"blog-outline-wiki-notion-self-hosted-vps-2-en",{"id":9,"slug":10,"slugs":11,"title":13,"excerpt":14,"readTime":15,"views":16,"isPinned":17,"publishedAt":18,"category":19,"categories":25,"featuredImage":27,"bgImage":28,"posterImage":29,"relatedSolution":27,"intro":30,"sections":31,"ctaTitle":127,"ctaBody":128,"ctaButton":129,"ctaUrl":130,"relatedPosts":131},340,"outline-wiki-notion-self-hosted-vps-2",{"fr":12,"en":10,"ar":10,"es":10},"outline-wiki-notion-self-hosted-vps","Outline: Self-Hosted Wiki on VPS, Alternative to Notion","Outline delivers a polished wiki you can host on your own VPS, with no per-seat subscription. Qualify the BSL 1.1 licence before adopting it for your team.",8,0,false,"2026-09-08T00:00:00+00:00",{"id":20,"name":21,"slug":22,"color":23,"icon":24},7,"Self-hosting","self-hosting","bg-indigo-500\u002F10 text-indigo-400","cloud",[26],{"id":20,"name":21,"slug":22,"color":23,"icon":24},null,"\u002Fblog\u002Fcovers\u002Fbg.svg","\u002Fblog\u002Fcovers\u002Foutline-wiki-notion-self-hosted-vps-poster.svg","Bending Spoons' acquisition of Airtable in August 2026 renewed distrust of SaaS vendors that pivot. In this context, Outline is back on the radar as an alternative to Notion and Confluence: elegant Markdown rendering, real-time editing, granular permissions. Before deploying, one point deserves attention — its BSL 1.1 licence is not open source in the OSI sense, and that distinction changes what you can or cannot do with it.",[32,36,47,50,98,101,120,124],{"type":33,"title":34,"body":35},"h2","Why Outline over Notion or Confluence on a VPS","Notion and Confluence share the same structural flaw: their pricing scales with the number of seats, and it climbs as the team grows. Confluence Cloud charges per monthly active user, and Notion has bundled its AI module into recent plans without an opt-out. For a 20-person team on Notion Business, the bill quickly reaches several hundred dollars a month — for a wiki where you control neither the data, the roadmap, nor the date of the next acquisition.\n\nOutline breaks this logic. Hosted on your own VPS, the cost is fixed: you pay for the server, not each additional collaborator. The rendering is polished — clean typography, syntax-highlighted code blocks, embedded images, tables — and simultaneous editing works via WebSockets. Full-text search is indexed directly in PostgreSQL: no external service, no additional cost. For a technical team of 10 to 50 people, it offers an excellent quality\u002Fcost ratio in the self-hosted wiki market.\n\nThe Airtable acquisition by Bending Spoons is not a side note. Bending Spoons is known for acquiring popular SaaS tools and reshaping their economics — Evernote, Meetup, WeTransfer. When your company documentation relies on a third-party SaaS, such an operation can mean a price increase, degraded free-tier features, or a pivot incompatible with your use case. Hosting Outline on your own infrastructure removes this reversal risk.",{"type":37,"title":38,"items":39},"ul","What Outline delivers concretely",[40,41,42,43,44,45,46],"**Real-time Markdown rendering** — the editor looks like Notion without proprietary blocks","**Collaborative editing** — multiple writers on the same document via WebSockets and Redis","**Permissions per collection and group** — read-only, comment, edit, admin","**Full-text search** — indexed on PostgreSQL, operational from installation","**Attachments and images** — S3-compatible storage (MinIO, Backblaze B2, AWS S3)","**Documented REST API** — integratable into your CI\u002FCD pipelines or automation scripts","**Import from Notion, Confluence and Markdown** — friction-free migration",{"type":33,"title":48,"body":49},"BSL 1.1 licence: Outline is not open source","This is the point that most comparisons gloss over. Outline is published under the **Business Source License 1.1** (BSL 1.1). On its own GitHub page, the licence is described as \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Foutline\u002Foutline\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002FLICENSE\">\"not an Open Source license\"\u003C\u002Fa> — this is not an interpretation, it is the authors' own wording.\n\nIn practice, BSL 1.1 prohibits one specific use: **offering Outline as a document service to third parties**. If you are a software vendor and want to provide an Outline wiki to your customers as a paid service, you are outside the licence.\n\nFor **internal team use** — knowledge base, product documentation, runbooks, onboarding — the restriction does not apply. You can self-host freely.\n\nThe planned change date to Apache 2.0 is **2030-09-01** (verify in the LICENSE file in the repository before making any decision). At that date, the licence will become fully permissive and allow all uses, including commercial.\n\n**Practical summary**: if your team uses Outline internally, no problem. If you plan to resell it or offer it as a service to customers, read the licence before deploying.",{"type":51,"title":52,"headers":53,"rows":58},"comparison","Outline vs Notion vs Confluence vs Docmost",[5,54,55,56,57],"Outline","Notion","Confluence","Docmost",[59,64,68,73,78,84,88,92],[60,61,62,62,63],"Licence model","BSL 1.1 (→ Apache 2.0 in 2030)","Proprietary SaaS","AGPL-3.0",[21,65,66,67,65],"Yes — Docker + VPS","No","Yes (Data Center, costly)",[69,70,71,72,70],"Pricing","Fixed server cost","Per seat\u002Fmonth","Per active user",[74,75,76,76,77],"Real-time editing","Yes (WebSockets + Redis)","Yes","Yes (WebSockets)",[79,80,81,82,83],"Required stack","PostgreSQL + Redis + S3","N\u002FA (SaaS)","PostgreSQL\u002FOracle + heavy infra","PostgreSQL only",[85,86,87,76,86],"Full-text search","Integrated PostgreSQL","Yes (SaaS)",[89,76,90,90,91],"Import Notion\u002FConfluence","Export only","Yes (Notion)",[93,94,95,96,97],"Maturity","Since 2019, active","Founded 2016","Founded 2004","Since 2023",{"type":33,"title":99,"body":100},"Requirements for hosting Outline on a VPS","Outline consists of three services that must run together.\n\n**PostgreSQL** stores all documents, users and permissions. It is the only service that persists your wiki's state: a database backup is sufficient to restore everything. **Redis** handles sessions, WebSockets for real-time editing and background job queues. If Redis goes down, simultaneous editing stops but documents remain readable. **S3-compatible storage** (self-hosted MinIO, Backblaze B2 or AWS S3) receives attachments and images — without this service, uploads are rejected but everything else works.\n\nMinimum sizing for a team of fewer than 50 people: **2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM**, 20 GB SSD disk for the database. A Power VPS (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) comfortably covers the full stack with headroom for simultaneous editing spikes.\n\nHost-side software: Docker 24+, Docker Compose v2, a reverse proxy (Nginx or Caddy), a valid TLS certificate. A domain name is required: Outline checks the `Host` header and refuses direct IP connections.",{"type":102,"title":103,"steps":104},"steps","Deploy Outline with Docker Compose",[105,108,111,114,117],{"title":106,"body":107},"Create the `docker-compose.yml` file","Create a dedicated directory and write the compose file:\n\n```bash\nmkdir -p \u002Fopt\u002Foutline && cd \u002Fopt\u002Foutline\n```\n\nMinimal `docker-compose.yml` content:\n\n```yaml\nservices:\n  outline:\n    image: outlinewiki\u002Foutline:latest\n    env_file: .env\n    ports:\n      - \"127.0.0.1:3000:3000\"\n    depends_on:\n      - postgres\n      - redis\n\n  postgres:\n    image: postgres:15\n    env_file: .env\n    volumes:\n      - postgres_data:\u002Fvar\u002Flib\u002Fpostgresql\u002Fdata\n\n  redis:\n    image: redis:7\n    volumes:\n      - redis_data:\u002Fdata\n\nvolumes:\n  postgres_data:\n  redis_data:\n```",{"title":109,"body":110},"Configure the `.env` file","Generate a secret key and a utility key:\n\n```bash\nopenssl rand -hex 32   # SECRET_KEY\nopenssl rand -hex 32   # UTILS_SECRET\n```\n\nEssential variables in ‎`.env`:\n\n```\nSECRET_KEY=\u003Cgenerated-key>\nUTILS_SECRET=\u003Cgenerated-key>\nDATABASE_URL=postgres:\u002F\u002Foutline:password@postgres:5432\u002Foutline\nREDIS_URL=redis:\u002F\u002Fredis:6379\nURL=https:\u002F\u002Fwiki.yourdomain.com\nFORCE_HTTPS=true\nPGUSER=outline\nPGPASSWORD=password\nPGDATABASE=outline\nAWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=\u003Cyour-s3-key>\nAWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=\u003Cyour-s3-secret>\nAWS_REGION=us-east-1\nAWS_S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET_NAME=outline-uploads\nAWS_S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET_URL=https:\u002F\u002Fs3.amazonaws.com\n```\n\nFor authentication, Outline supports OIDC, Slack, Google OAuth and SAML. OIDC configuration is the most versatile for a technical team (Keycloak, Authentik, etc.).",{"title":112,"body":113},"Start and initialise the database","```bash\ndocker compose up -d postgres redis\n# wait a few seconds for PostgreSQL to start\ndocker compose run --rm outline yarn db:migrate\ndocker compose up -d outline\n```\n\nVerify that all three services are running:\n\n```bash\ndocker compose ps\n```",{"title":115,"body":116},"Configure the Nginx reverse proxy","Outline listens on port 3000 locally. Example Nginx block:\n\n```\nserver {\n    listen 443 ssl;\n    server_name wiki.yourdomain.com;\n\n    ssl_certificate \u002Fetc\u002Fletsencrypt\u002Flive\u002Fwiki.yourdomain.com\u002Ffullchain.pem;\n    ssl_certificate_key \u002Fetc\u002Fletsencrypt\u002Flive\u002Fwiki.yourdomain.com\u002Fprivkey.pem;\n\n    location \u002F {\n        proxy_pass http:\u002F\u002F127.0.0.1:3000;\n        proxy_http_version 1.1;\n        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;\n        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';\n        proxy_set_header Host $host;\n        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;\n    }\n}\n```\n\nThe `Upgrade` header is essential for WebSockets (real-time editing) to work correctly.",{"title":118,"body":119},"Create the first administrator account","Access `https:\u002F\u002Fwiki.yourdomain.com` from your browser. Outline will guide you through creating your workspace and first account. If you are using OIDC, sign in via your identity provider — the first user automatically becomes an administrator.\n\nTo invite colleagues, go to Settings → Members → Invite.",{"type":121,"title":122,"body":123},"tip","Update Outline without downtime","Outline publishes tagged Docker images. Avoid `latest` in production: target a specific version (e.g. `outlinewiki\u002Foutline:0.76.1`) and test migrations in staging before applying them.\n\nUpdate procedure:\n\n```bash\ndocker compose pull outline\ndocker compose run --rm outline yarn db:migrate\ndocker compose up -d outline\n```\n\nPostgreSQL migrations are reversible — a database backup before each update remains the safest precaution. The `docker compose run --rm outline yarn db:migrate` command applies migrations without restarting the web service, allowing you to prepare the database before switching over. On installations with many documents, the migration may take a few seconds: the service remains reachable during this time via the old container version.",{"type":33,"title":125,"body":126},"When to choose Docmost over Outline","**Outline** is the right choice if you want polished Markdown rendering comparable to Notion, robust simultaneous editing, and integration with an existing identity provider (OIDC, SAML). Its maturity (since 2019), active community and stability track record are strong arguments for a team building for the long term. Advanced features — document comments, revision history, Slack and Linear integrations — make it the most complete tool in the self-hosted segment.\n\n**Docmost** is a newer alternative (2023), under the AGPL-3.0 licence — a genuine open source licence in the OSI sense, with no restriction on use as a service. Its stack is lighter (PostgreSQL only, no Redis), which simplifies installation on an entry-level VPS. If licence qualification is a blocking criterion — especially if you are building a SaaS product that would embed a knowledge base accessible to your end users — Docmost deserves parallel evaluation. This article focuses on the choice and licence qualification; for the step-by-step installation guide, see \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fblog\u002Fself-host-docmost-vps\">our dedicated Docmost guide\u003C\u002Fa>.\n\nBoth coexist in the self-hosted landscape without directly cannibalising each other: Outline has more advanced features and a more established community, Docmost has a more permissive licence and a simpler stack. The choice depends on your legal context and technical requirements. If you are migrating from Notion and want to preserve your existing hierarchy, Outline is currently the most advanced on import tooling.","Deploy your team wiki on a VPS","A Power VPS (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) comfortably covers the full Outline stack — PostgreSQL, Redis and S3 storage — for a team of fewer than 50 people.","Configure My Outline VPS Solution","\u002Fvps-cloud",[132,147,164],{"id":133,"slug":134,"slugs":135,"title":139,"excerpt":140,"readTime":141,"views":16,"isPinned":17,"publishedAt":142,"category":143,"categories":144,"featuredImage":27,"bgImage":28,"posterImage":146,"relatedSolution":27},80,"host-outline-on-your-own-vps",{"fr":136,"en":134,"ar":137,"es":138},"heberger-outline","استضافة-outline-على-خادم-vps-الخاص-بك","alojar-outline-en-un-vps","Host Outline on your own VPS","Deploy Outline on your Cloud VPS: a self-hosted collaborative knowledge base with Docker, PostgreSQL, Redis and SSL. Complete guide.",3,"2026-04-01T00:00:00+00:00",{"id":20,"name":21,"slug":22,"color":23,"icon":24},[145],{"id":20,"name":21,"slug":22,"color":23,"icon":24},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcovers\u002Fheberger-outline-poster.svg",{"id":148,"slug":149,"slugs":150,"title":154,"excerpt":155,"readTime":141,"views":16,"isPinned":17,"publishedAt":156,"category":157,"categories":158,"featuredImage":27,"bgImage":28,"posterImage":160,"relatedSolution":161},79,"host-bookstack-on-your-own-vps",{"fr":151,"en":149,"ar":152,"es":153},"heberger-bookstack","استضافة-bookstack-على-خادم-vps-الخاص-بك","alojar-bookstack-en-un-vps","Host BookStack on your own VPS","Install BookStack on your VPS with Docker, MySQL and SSL. An open source wiki and knowledge base, simple and structured.","2026-04-02T00:00:00+00:00",{"id":20,"name":21,"slug":22,"color":23,"icon":24},[159],{"id":20,"name":21,"slug":22,"color":23,"icon":24},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcovers\u002Fheberger-bookstack-poster.svg",{"categorySlug":162,"appSlug":163},"collaboration-productivity","bookstack",{"id":165,"slug":166,"slugs":167,"title":171,"excerpt":172,"readTime":141,"views":16,"isPinned":17,"publishedAt":173,"category":174,"categories":175,"featuredImage":27,"bgImage":28,"posterImage":177,"relatedSolution":178},148,"how-to-self-host-docmost-on-a-vps",{"fr":168,"en":166,"ar":169,"es":170},"self-host-docmost-vps","كيفية-استضافة-docmost-ذاتيا-على-vps","como-autoalojar-docmost-en-un-vps","How to Self-Host Docmost on a VPS","Deploy Docmost on your VPS for a self-hosted team wiki with real-time collaboration. Open-source Notion and Confluence alternative — Docker Compose in 15 minutes.","2026-01-28T00:00:00+00:00",{"id":20,"name":21,"slug":22,"color":23,"icon":24},[176],{"id":20,"name":21,"slug":22,"color":23,"icon":24},"\u002Fblog\u002Fcovers\u002Fself-host-docmost-vps-poster.svg",{"categorySlug":162,"appSlug":179},"docmost",1789046175967]