Coda
Docs, tables, and apps combined into one collaborative workspace
Outline
Fast, real-time collaborative knowledge base for modern teams
Outline delivers a sleek, markdown-compatible knowledge base with real-time editing, powerful search, and granular permissions, letting growing teams capture and share information instantly.
Overview
Highlights
Real-time collaborative editing
Full markdown support with live preview
Granular access controls and SSO integration
Docker‑based deployment with Sequelize migrations
Pros
- Fast performance with a responsive UI
- Strong community backing (35k+ stars)
- Robust test suite for core functionality
- Clear documentation for self‑hosting
Considerations
- Self‑hosting requires Node/TypeScript familiarity
- Limited built‑in analytics and reporting
- No official enterprise SLA for self‑hosted deployments
- UI may feel minimal for very large organizations
Managed products teams compare with
When teams consider Outline, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.
Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.
Fit guide
Great for
- Small to medium teams needing an internal wiki
- Companies that prefer to keep documentation on‑premise
- Teams that collaborate on docs in real time
- Organizations that rely heavily on markdown for documentation
Not ideal when
- Teams requiring deep custom workflow automation
- Users looking for out‑of‑the‑box AI summarization
- Organizations needing a fully managed enterprise support plan
- Very large enterprises demanding multi‑tenant SaaS solutions
How teams use it
Onboarding handbook
New hires access up‑to‑date policies and procedures instantly.
Product documentation
Engineers co‑author API docs with live preview and version history.
Incident post‑mortems
Cross‑functional teams capture findings in a searchable archive.
Marketing asset library
Designers share brand guidelines with version control and easy collaboration.
Tech snapshot
TypeScript96%
JavaScript4%
HTML1%
Dockerfile1%
Makefile1%
Procfile1%
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to run the code to use Outline?
No, a hosted version is available at getoutline.com; the repository is for self‑hosting or contribution.
What language and framework is Outline built with?
Outline uses TypeScript, React for the frontend, and Node.js/Express for the backend.
How is data stored and migrated?
The app uses Sequelize for database migrations and supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, and other SQL databases.
Can I customize authentication?
Yes, Outline supports SSO, LDAP, and custom OAuth providers via configuration.
Is there a test suite?
The project includes Jest tests for API endpoints and authentication, runnable with `make test`.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 36,780
- Watchers
- 36,780
- Forks
- 3,031
Repo age9 years old
Last commit2 days ago
Primary languageTypeScript
Last synced yesterday