Outline or BookStack? Self-hosted team wikis compared

The short answer

Pick BookStack if you want a plain, predictable wiki with ordinary passwords, LDAP or SAML, PDF export and an MIT licence: it used the least memory and does everything in its free version. Pick Outline if your team writes together and wants a fast, modern editor where several people type in the same document at once, and you are fine with signing in by email link or a sign-in provider, a source-available licence and no PDF export.

What we tested

We installed both on the same fresh Melonslab VC-P Alloy (2 vCPU, 8 GB) with Debian 13, one after the other, by following our guides Outline with rootless Podman and BookStack with rootless Podman step by step. Each ran under a user of its own, behind the same Caddy. Every step worked as written.

Then we built the same small knowledge base in both:

• three sections: Handbook, IT and Management;
• ten pages, with two images, two tables and two code blocks, and the IT pages split into two groups, Infrastructure and Office IT;
• an admin, Anna, and an editor, Erik. Erik could read the Handbook but not change it, could edit everything in IT, and could not see Management at all.

We ran the same 15 searches as both users, exported and imported pages, switched Erik to Swedish, rebooted the server, measured the memory, and ran each guide's backup and restore.

The numbers

Memory is the sum of each app's containers, measured with podman stats four minutes after a reboot, with each wiki opened once. Most of the data on disk is the empty databases themselves: the ten pages and two images take well under a megabyte in both.

Structure

The two sort content in different ways, and that shapes how a wiki grows.

Outline has collections, and inside them documents that can hold other documents, as deep as you like. There are no folders: our Infrastructure group was a document of its own, with Servers and Backups under it. The sidebar shows the whole tree, and you move documents by dragging them.

BookStack has four fixed levels: shelves hold books, books hold chapters and pages, and chapters hold pages. Our sections became books on one shelf, and Infrastructure became a chapter. A page cannot hold another page, so a deeper tree has to be split into more books. In return, every book looks the same, which makes a large wiki easy to find your way in.

Editing

Outline has one editor, and every document is open for editing as soon as you look at it, if you may change it. It works like a modern notes app: / on an empty line lists the blocks, such as tables, code blocks and images, and Markdown shortcuts such as # and ** work as you type. Changes save by themselves. We opened the same document as Anna and Erik in two browsers, and what Anna typed showed up in Erik's window at once, with her cursor.

BookStack has two editors. The default one works like a word processor, with a toolbar; the other is Markdown, with a live preview next to it. You choose Edit, write, and Save Page, and each save is a revision you can add a note to. When Anna opened a page that Erik had started editing, BookStack warned her: "Erik Lund has started editing this page in the last 60 minutes. Take care not to overwrite each other's updates!" There is no live co-editing.

Both keep earlier versions, with what changed, and both have comments on pages. Pages we created through BookStack's API in Markdown kept opening in the Markdown editor; pages started in the browser open in the word-processor editor.

Search

We ran the same queries as Anna and as Erik. Both found words in text, in tables and in code blocks, such as Titanium, restic and pg_dump, and neither forgave a typo: bakup found nothing in either. The differences:

• Word forms. Outline matched salary to "Salaries" and server to "Servers". BookStack matches the start of a word, so server found "Servers" and backup found "Backups", but salary did not find "Salaries".
• Several words. Outline looked for pages with all of them: floor plan found the onboarding page with the floor plan. BookStack also listed pages with only one of the words, so floor plan found two more pages with the word "plan" in them. Quotes, as in "guest network", made BookStack look for the phrase.
• What comes back. BookStack's results also include the books and chapters whose names or descriptions match.

Both kept Erik's results to what he may see: a search for salary or confidential found nothing for him in either, and the pages were found for Anna.

Permissions

Both did what we asked of them. The difference is how fine you can go.

Outline sets access per collection: no access, view only or can edit, for everyone, with people or groups added on top. A single document can also be shared with one person. We shared the Salary review page with Erik as read-only: he could read and find it, but not edit it or see the rest of Management, and he lost it again when we removed him. Workspace roles are Admin, Editor and Viewer. Guest users, for people outside the company, are not in the free edition.

BookStack sets access per role, and roles are its groups: there are no permissions for one person, so a special case needs a role of its own. Permissions can be set on a shelf, a book, a chapter or a single page, separately for view, create, edit and delete. We opened one page in the hidden Management book to Erik's role, and he could read that page while the book stayed hidden. BookStack's default Editor role may also edit and delete every book and shelf, so check the roles under Settings > Roles before you invite people.

Images are where they differ most. In Outline, an image needs a sign-in. In BookStack, anyone who has an image's address can open it without logging in, as its guide explains.

Sign-in

Outline has no passwords. People sign in with a link sent by email, with a passkey, or through Google, Microsoft, Slack, Discord or an OpenID Connect server such as authentik. Without working email, or one of those, nobody new can sign in. SAML is only in Outline's paid editions, and there is no LDAP.

BookStack has ordinary passwords, with optional two-factor codes from an app, and can instead leave sign-in to LDAP, SAML 2.0 or OpenID Connect, or add buttons for Google, Microsoft, GitHub, GitLab and other services. It works without email: you set people's passwords yourself. That suits an office with Active Directory or a team without a shared email domain.

We tested the email link and invites in Outline, and passwords in BookStack, as each guide sets up. We did not test LDAP, SAML or OpenID Connect in either.

Import and export

We imported a page that BookStack had exported into Outline, as Markdown and as HTML. Both arrived with their table and list; from HTML the image became an upload in Outline, from Markdown it stayed a link back to BookStack. BookStack imported its own ZIP export with a preview step first, image included. It has no import for Markdown or Word files in the browser; the API takes Markdown or HTML for each page. Outline's Confluence import is in its paid editions.

API

Both have a full API and webhooks. We built the whole test wiki in both through it.

• Outline's API takes a JSON POST for each action, such as documents.create, with a key each user can make under API & Access. It accepts Markdown.
• BookStack's is a REST API, documented on the wiki itself at /api/docs, with a token made under My Account. A role needs Access system API to use it, which only Admin has by default. It accepts Markdown or HTML.

Swedish

Both come translated into Swedish, and each user can choose it. In Outline it is Svenska (Swedish) under Preferences; in BookStack, Svenska under My Account > Profile Details. Both guides show how to make it the default for new users. Both translated the menus and buttons we saw; the content stays in the language you write it in.

Resources

BookStack is a PHP app, and its container used 20 MB at rest; most of its 150 MB was MariaDB. Outline is a Node.js app that keeps more in memory, and needs Valkey for its queues, which made it about 225 MB. Both are small next to an 8 GB server, and both together used under 400 MB.

Outline's image is the big one, 1.15 GB on its own, so it took about twice BookStack's disk before any content.

Updates and backups

Outline's guide follows the 1.11 tag, so patch releases install by themselves, and you move to the next version, about every month or two, by changing the tag after reading the release notes. Admins see under Installation in the settings whether a newer version exists.

BookStack comes as an image from LinuxServer.io, as BookStack publishes none of its own, and its guide follows latest, so new versions install by themselves. BookStack numbers its releases by year and month, such as 26.09. LinuxServer.io say they do not support unattended updates, and its guide shows how to pin a version instead.

Both backups are a database dump, a volume with the uploads, and the keys from the setup: 368 KB for Outline and 504 KB for BookStack in our test. We restored both into empty volumes, and the pages, images, users and permissions came back. Both also came back by themselves after a reboot.

Licence and cost

We read the current licence texts and pricing pages on 14 October 2026.

• BookStack is open source under the MIT licence, made by Dan Brown in the United Kingdom with its community. There is no paid edition: every feature is in the free version. HTTP Functions Ltd sells support for 450 pounds a year, or 4,500 pounds for an enterprise plan.
• Outline is under the Business Source License 1.1, which its licence text says "is not an Open Source license". You may run it, change it and use it in production, but not sell it to others as a "Document Service", where outside users create their own teams and documents. Each version becomes Apache 2.0, open source, four years after release: the change date for 1.11.0 is 12 October 2030. General Outline, Inc. in the United States makes it. The free Community Edition, which our guide uses, lacks guest users, SAML, the security audit log, the Confluence import and AI answers; those are in the self-hosted Business edition, at 4 US dollars per user a month, billed yearly for at least 10 users. Outline's hosted service starts at 10 dollars a month for up to 10 members.

For a company that runs a wiki for its own staff, both licences allow it at no cost. Hosted on your own server, both keep your documents in Sweden.

Which one to pick

BookStack suits most small companies that want documentation that stays put: routines, server notes and manuals that a few people write and many read. It runs in about 150 MB, signs in with passwords or your existing LDAP or SAML, exports PDFs, sets permissions down to a single page and is MIT-licensed with nothing held back. Its weak points are the fixed four levels, search that matches any of your words, images that open without a login for anyone with the address, an editor where two people overwrite each other if they ignore the warning, and an image made by LinuxServer.io rather than the project. Follow the BookStack guide; it runs comfortably on a VC-P Alloy, next to other apps.

Outline suits a team that writes together every day: meeting notes, plans and how-tos that change often. Its editor is the faster one to write in, several people can edit at once, documents nest as deep as you like, search understands word forms, and images need a login. Its weak points are sign-in that depends on email or a sign-in provider, no LDAP, no PDF export and no guest users in the free edition, a licence that is not open source, and twice the disk. Follow the Outline guide, on a VC-P Alloy.

Both together used under 400 MB, so a VC-P Alloy can also run both, as on our test server.