Open-source alternatives to Confluence: 3 team wiki tools compared
Moving off a hosted wiki trades per-user pricing for the work of running your own databases and applying your own upgrades, and only two of the three tools here are open source in the licence sense. Docmost is the one most readers should look at first, because its AGPL-3.0 core covers the parts of Confluence teams miss most and its deployment is documented as Docker Compose.
What Confluence does, and why people look elsewhere
Confluence is Atlassian's hosted team wiki: spaces, pages, templates, comments and permissions, integrated with Jira.
- per-user pricing for the whole organisation
- the self-managed Server edition was discontinued
- page export loses macros and structure
The candidates at a glance
| Project | Licence | Maintenance | Language | GitHub stars | Install | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| outline/outline | Custom licenceCustom licence: read the LICENSE file | Commits in the last dayLast push October 11, 2026 | TypeScript | 40,866 | Command documented | Teams that want a realtime, markdown-compatible knowledge base, already have someone who can run Postgres and Redis, and accept source-available code rather than an OSI-approved licence. |
| requarks/wiki | AGPL-3.0Network copyleft: hosting a modified version means sharing source | Commits in the last six monthsLast push October 4, 2026 | Vue | 29,004 | See analysis | Teams that want a plainly scoped AGPL-3.0 wiki and will follow its documentation site instead of a repository README for the install steps, especially where page trees and permissions matter more than embedded diagrams. |
| docmost/docmost | AGPL-3.0Network copyleft: hosting a modified version means sharing source | Commits in the last dayLast push October 11, 2026 | TypeScript | 21,941 | Command documented | Teams that want Confluence's shape back: spaces, groups, permissions, comments and page history, with realtime editing and Draw.io, Excalidraw and Mermaid diagrams, under an AGPL-3.0 core that satisfies an open-source licence requirement. |
Each alternative in detail
outline/outlineThe fastest knowledge base for growing teams. Beautiful, realtime collaborative, feature packed, and markdown compatible.
- Best for
- Teams that want a realtime, markdown-compatible knowledge base, already have someone who can run Postgres and Redis, and accept source-available code rather than an OSI-approved licence.
- What you give up
- The LICENSE file is BSL 1.1, a custom licence GitHub cannot classify, so it does not satisfy a policy that requires OSI-approved code. Self-hosting means operating Postgres, Redis and the app, and .env.sample leaves COLLABORATION_URL empty for normal operation, so check whether your deployment needs a separate collaboration service. Tagged releases stopped at v1.9.2 on 2026-07-21 while the last push is 2026-09-29, so plan to run from source between tags.
- First install step
- Full setup guide
yarn db:create-migration --name my-migration yarn db:migrate yarn db:rollback
requarks/wikiWiki.js | Next Generation Open Source Wiki
- Best for
- Teams that want a plainly scoped AGPL-3.0 wiki and will follow its documentation site instead of a repository README for the install steps, especially where page trees and permissions matter more than embedded diagrams.
- What you give up
- The published releases are 3.0.0-beta.583 and earlier, so the 3.0 line is still labelled beta. Our analysis records no install command for it, and the README routes requirements, installation, the demo and feature requests to hosted pages, so the operational footprint is not visible from the repository. The AGPLv3 licence means a modification you host for network users has to be published under the same terms.
docmost/docmostDocmost is an open-source collaborative wiki and documentation software. It is an open-source alternative to Confluence and Notion.
- Best for
- Teams that want Confluence's shape back: spaces, groups, permissions, comments and page history, with realtime editing and Draw.io, Excalidraw and Mermaid diagrams, under an AGPL-3.0 core that satisfies an open-source licence requirement.
- What you give up
- Features in apps/server/src/ee, apps/client/src/ee and packages/ee are licensed under a separate Docmost Enterprise licence, so confirm the features you need sit in the AGPL-3.0 core before assuming them. The current release v0.96.0 of 2026-09-08 is still below 1.0, and the command on this page is a package-manager script while deployment is documented as Docker Compose with PostgreSQL and Redis, so two datastores are yours to run and upgrade.
- First install step
- Full setup guide
docker compose up -d
Two AGPL-3.0 wikis and one source-available knowledge base
Confluence is a page-and-permission system: spaces, pages, templates, comments and permissions, integrated with Jira. The three projects here all rebuild that core, and they differ most in what they were built to be.
Outline is a TypeScript knowledge base with a React frontend and a Node.js backend, aimed at realtime collaborative docs that stay markdown compatible. Its repository is the source for the hosted product, so a self-hosted copy runs the same code the vendor runs. Wiki.js is a Vue application on NodeJS with a deliberately narrow scope: a modern, lightweight wiki whose README answers three questions, what licence it is under, where the documentation lives and how to reach the community on Discord, Bluesky, Telegram and Reddit, then links out. Docmost is the closest in shape to Confluence. Its own description calls it an open source alternative to Confluence and Notion, and its feature list records realtime collaboration, diagrams through Draw.io, Excalidraw and Mermaid, spaces, permissions management, groups, comments, page history, search, file attachments, embeds and translations into more than ten languages.
Scope matters here. This comparison covers three page-and-tree wikis and nothing else. It does not cover a wiki bundled with a code hosting platform, a hosted editor suite, or a migration-first tool, because those replace a different part of a toolchain rather than the wiki itself. None of the three descriptions mentions a Jira tie-in either, so if the Confluence you rely on is valuable mainly because of that integration, check each project's own documentation for it before you assume anything.
Choosing by team size, compliance need and who runs the server
Solo. A single person evaluating a replacement can start with Docmost, whose page shows a pnpm dev command, and read the TypeScript source to judge how much surface they would inherit. Wiki.js is a slower start for the same reader, because the setup steps live on a documentation site rather than in the repository.
Small team. A group that mostly writes and reads documentation, and wants the editing feel people already know from Notion or Confluence, lands on Docmost or Outline. Outline fits better when the team insists on markdown compatibility and realtime editing and someone is available to operate Postgres and Redis.
Company with compliance needs. The licence is the filter, not the feature list. Wiki.js and Docmost are AGPL-3.0, so an open-source policy that requires an OSI-approved licence is satisfied. Outline is BSL 1.1, a custom licence GitHub cannot classify, and our analysis of Outline says that anyone who needs the code to be open source rather than source-available should not self-host it. If your reviewers check the licence identifier, two of the three pass and one does not.
Developer embedding it. A team that wants the wiki inside its own tooling has to think about permissions and structure rather than editing. Docmost records permissions management and groups as named features, and its spaces model is the nearest thing here to Confluence's. Our analysis of Docmost also flags the split between core and enterprise directories, which an embedding team should resolve before designing against the application.
What the install commands tell you about operations
The commands on this page do not look comparable at first glance, and the differences are informative.
For Outline the command is the migration trio from the README: create a migration, run it, roll it back. That is a database maintenance toolchain, and it tells you the application manages its own relational schema through Sequelize. Our analysis of Outline adds that a self-hosted copy means running Postgres, Redis and the app yourself, and that the docker-compose file and .env.sample are the concrete starting point. The same analysis notes that .env.sample leaves COLLABORATION_URL empty for normal operation, so check whether your deployment needs a separate collaboration service before you size the machine.
For Docmost the command is pnpm dev, a package-manager script, while our analysis of Docmost describes deployment with Docker Compose against PostgreSQL and Redis. Two datastores, as with Outline, but a different packaging.
For Wiki.js our analysis records no install command at all, and the README is deliberate about it: requirements, installation, documentation, a demo and the feature request board all sit behind links. The operational footprint is real but not visible from the repository, so it has to be read before you commit a machine to it.
Both Outline and Docmost offer a hosted version, which makes the operational load a choice you can decline by paying someone else. Updates differ in shape too. Outline tagged v1.9.2 on 2026-07-21 and the last push is 2026-09-29, so a self-hosted copy may be running from source between tags. Docmost tagged v0.96.0 on 2026-09-08 with the last push on 2026-09-27. Wiki.js published 3.0.0-beta.583 on 2026-09-19, so the 3.0 line is still labelled beta.
What the three licences require of a company
Two candidates put the same obligation on you. Wiki.js and Docmost are AGPL-3.0. Our analysis of Docmost puts it plainly: any modification deployed over a network must be released under the same licence. Run either one unmodified for internal readers and that clause is not what decides your day. Patch it, expose it to people outside the company, and you owe the corresponding source under AGPL-3.0. Teams that already ship modified internal tools under a permissive licence should read that clause before the first patch, not after.
Docmost splits its repository. Everything under apps/server/src/ee, apps/client/src/ee and packages/ee is licensed under a separate Docmost Enterprise licence, and the AGPL-3.0 grant covers the core. That split is the practical trap: a feature can be visible in the interface and absent from the code you are permitted to use. Check the directory list against the features you need before assuming which half is included.
Outline is the odd one out. The LICENSE file is BSL 1.1, which is why the licence field reads Other. Our analysis of Outline says to verify what the BSL 1.1 licence permits for your use, and to consider the hosted version or a different tool if you need open source code rather than source-available code. A policy that scans for OSI-approved identifiers will not match BSL 1.1, so an approval that takes a week can quietly turn into a rejection.
Wiki.js asks openly for translation help and funds itself through GitHub sponsors, OpenCollective, Patreon, Paypal and Ethereum. That is a funding model, not a licence term, and it changes nothing about the AGPLv3 grant.
The move itself: export keeps the text and loses the structure
Confluence page export loses macros and structure, so whichever way you go, the existing wiki arrives as text and headings. Our analysis records no import path from Confluence for any of the three candidates, and none of the three descriptions mentions one, so budget the move as manual work rather than as a button.
The shape of that work is predictable. Export pages as HTML or markdown, rewrite internal links that pointed at the old tree, reattach images, then rebuild the structure by hand. The last part is the expensive one, and your choice of tool decides how much scaffolding you get. Docmost records spaces, groups and permissions management, so a Confluence space maps onto something that already exists. Our analysis of Outline notes markdown compatibility, so the body text converts cleanly while the surrounding structure has to be rebuilt. Wiki.js gives you the same manual work with a page tree instead of spaces.
Comments, page history and attachment links are the parts most likely to stay behind. Docmost records page history for pages written after the move, not for the archive you brought in. If you treat the wiki as a record of decisions, export a copy of the old content before switching rather than assume the new instance holds it.
Bottom line
A small team that wants Confluence's structure back under an OSI-approved licence should start with Docmost and confirm that the features it needs sit in the AGPL-3.0 core rather than the enterprise directories. A team with nobody to spare for two datastores should read the Wiki.js documentation first and weigh its installation against the operational load of the other two. Outline is worth the time only when realtime markdown editing matters enough to accept BSL 1.1 and to run Postgres and Redis yourself. Before committing, verify the licence terms against your exact use, check which directory or tier holds each feature you depend on, and export the existing wiki, because macros and structure do not survive the move.