Outline
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 9 wiki software by recommenders
People recommend Outline as a free, self-hostable knowledge base that can replace Notion or Google Docs for most notes.
People recommend Outline as a free, self-hostable knowledge base that can replace Notion or Google Docs for most notes.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Free and self-hostable
“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.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Notion leaks email addresses of all editors of any public page” “Outline fit the bill so well, and was free.”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “There's free self-hosted ones too.”
Comment from 29 Nov 2025 in “Pocketbase – open-source realtime back end in 1 file” Praised as the one that works
“The only thing that works is Outline”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Tor staying ahead of censors in 2025” “Can vouch, outline is great”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “I built a faster Notion in Rust” Replaces Notion or Google Docs
“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.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Notion leaks email addresses of all editors of any public page” “Outline I actually like better than Google Docs for most things.”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Leaving Google has actively improved my life”
Other wiki software people recommend
The four most recommended other wiki software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confluence | 38 | 80 | 32% | 11 | 12 yrs3 owners | — |
| TiddlyWiki | 19 | 1 | 95% | 7 | — | Approved |
| MediaWiki | 15 | 9 | 63% | 8 | 6 yrs3 owners | — |
| OutlineThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| OzBrain | 8 | 4 | 67% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“we are spoiled for high quality note taking and knowledge management apps these days”
“Outline fit the bill so well, and was free.”
“I use it almost exactly like a cloud based Obsidian vault”
“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.”
“Outline I actually like better than Google Docs for most things.”
“The only thing that works is Outline”
“There's free self-hosted ones too.”
“Can vouch, outline is great”
“includes the KaTeX renderer in it's documents if you're interested in trying a knowledge base that has great direct support”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.