Notion bills every editor as a paid member and gates SAML SSO, private teamspaces, and 90-day page history behind its Business tier and above. A ten-person team that needs SSO therefore pays for ten Business seats before anyone writes a page. Outline, BookStack, and Wiki.js authenticate against your own identity provider (OIDC, SAML 2.0, or LDAP depending on the tool), so SSO becomes a config setting on your Keycloak or Authentik realm rather than a plan tier. Docmost and Colanode run on a Postgres instance you operate, and Colanode adds a STORAGE_TYPE switch that sends attachments to local disk or any S3-compatible bucket.
| Name | Main Category | Sub-Category | Target Alternative | Free Tier Summary | Self-Hostable? | Short Description | Primary Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BookStack | Project Management & Developer Workspaces | Hierarchical Documentation Wiki (Shelves / Books / Chapters) | Confluence Cloud / Confluence Data Center / Notion | 100% Free - Self-Hosted (MIT License with no seat caps or enterprise gates) | Yes - Docker | PHP/Laravel wiki that organizes documentation into real-world library abstractions (Shelves, Books, Chapters, Pages) with role-based permissions. Ships with built-in LDAP, SAML 2.0, OIDC, MFA, audit logging, and dual Markdown/WYSIWYG editors. Has no native Confluence importer, requiring API or HTML parsing for migrations. | |
Wiki.js | Project Management & Developer Workspaces | Git-Backed / Git-Synced Markdown Wiki | Confluence Cloud / Confluence Data Center / Notion | 100% Free - Self-Hosted (AGPL-3.0 with no seat limits or plan gates) | Yes - Docker | Node.js wiki with Markdown and visual editors, bidirectional Git storage sync, path-based page permissions, and native LDAP, SAML 2.0, and OAuth authentication. Has no native Confluence importer (requires Markdown/API migration); the 2.x line is the maintained stable release while 3.0 is in Beta. | |
Docmost | Project Management & Developer Workspaces | Collaborative Spaces Wiki & Docs Hub | Confluence Cloud / Confluence Data Center / Notion | Free - AGPL-3.0 Community Edition with unlimited users; SSO, LDAP, page-level permissions, Confluence import, and audit logs require a paid commercial license | Yes - Docker | Real-time collaborative wiki built on NestJS and React with spaces, group-based permissions, nested pages, and Draw.io/Excalidraw/Mermaid diagram embeds. Deploys via Docker Compose backed by PostgreSQL and Redis. Advanced capabilities including SAML/OIDC/LDAP authentication, page-level permissions, audit logs, and a native Confluence importer require a paid Business/Enterprise license key. | |
Colanode | Project Management & Developer Workspaces | Local-First Workspace (Pages, Databases & Chat) | Notion / Slack | 100% Free - Self-Hosted (Apache-2.0, no seat limits or license keys) | Yes - Docker | Local-first workspace combining Notion-style pages, customizable databases, and team chat, with CRDT sync and offline support. Self-hosts via Docker Compose or Kubernetes on Postgres, Redis, and optional S3 storage. | |
Outline | Project Management & Developer Workspaces | Team Wiki & Knowledge Base | Notion / Confluence | Free to self-host - source-available under BSL 1.1 (not OSI-approved; no seat cap, cannot be resold as a hosted service) | Yes - Docker | Notion-style team wiki with a slash-command editor, real-time collaboration, and nested collections. Requires Postgres, Redis, S3-compatible storage, and an external OIDC/Slack/Google login. |
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