# Outline

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Outline and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend Outline as a free, self-hostable knowledge base that can replace Notion or Google Docs for most notes.

## Why people recommend it

- Free and self-hostable (3 comments): "I self host https://www.getoutline.com/ instead, they might not have the latest AI features but it has everything I could ask for from a Notion alternative." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47826684)) "Outline fit the bill so well, and was free." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48682726)) "There's free self-hosted ones too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46089437))
- Praised as the one that works (2 comments): "The only thing that works is Outline" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46421748)) "Can vouch, outline is great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46057210))
- Replaces Notion or Google Docs (2 comments): "I self host https://www.getoutline.com/ instead, they might not have the latest AI features but it has everything I could ask for from a Notion alternative." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47826684)) "Outline I actually like better than Google Docs for most things." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47185665))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Confluence](https://hackerapproved.com/p/confluence.md): 38 recommend
- [TiddlyWiki](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tiddlywiki.md): 19 recommend
- [MediaWiki](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mediawiki.md): 15 recommend
- [OzBrain](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ozbrain.md): 8 recommend
- [DokuWiki](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dokuwiki.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Outline", https://hackerapproved.com/p/outline/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).