BookStack vs Outline
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
BookStack
Free self-hosted wiki organized into books, chapters and pages
Outline
Fast team knowledge base and wiki, cloud-hosted or self-hosted
Where they differ
- BookStack starts at £450 per year for an optional support plan; the software itself is free. Outline starts at $10 per month for a team of 1 to 10 members (cloud-hosted).
- Only Outline lists macOS and Windows apps.
- BookStack also covers templates and diagrams.
- Outline also covers AI search.
At a glance
| BookStack | Outline | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | £450 per year for an optional support plan; the software itself is free | $10 per month for a team of 1 to 10 members (cloud-hosted) |
| Free plan | The whole application is free and MIT licensed, with no cost to download and install your own instance. Community support carries no assurance of a response. | The self-hosted Community Edition costs $0, with limited features and no support. The cloud-hosted version has no free plan, only a 30-day trial. |
| Free trial | None listed | First 30 days free on the cloud version; the workspace then turns read-only until a payment method is added |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Made by | Dan Brown | General Outline, Inc. |
| Price read from | bookstackapp.com | getoutline.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
BookStack
- Teams that want a free wiki running on their own server
- Mixed technical and non-technical staff writing documentation
- Organizations that need LDAP, SAML2 or OIDC sign-in at no cost
Outline
- Teams that want a fast, Markdown-friendly internal wiki
- Organizations that need to host their knowledge base themselves
- Small teams: cloud hosting is a flat $10 a month for up to 10 members
Worth knowing
BookStack
- There is no official hosted version: you install and maintain it yourself, which takes some knowledge of hosting a PHP application and database.
- It needs PHP 8.2 or later with MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.6 or later, and shared PHP hosting is not supported.
- Paid support is priced in pounds, at £450 or £4,500 a year before VAT; free community support has no assured response.
Outline
- The cloud version has no free plan: after the 30-day trial the workspace is read-only until a payment method is added.
- Cloud pricing goes by team-size tier, so an 11th member moves a team from $10 to $79 a month, and teams over 200 need a quote.
- The free Community Edition lacks AI answers, guest users, SAML 2.0 and the audit log; paid self-hosted licenses need at least 10 users.
- The download page offers desktop apps for macOS and Windows only; no mobile apps are listed.
Key features
BookStack
- Books, chapters and pages
- All content sits in a three-level structure of books, chapters and pages, and pages can be re-sorted across books.
- WYSIWYG and Markdown editors
- Pages are written in a simple WYSIWYG editor by default. An optional Markdown editor shows a live preview as you write.
- Search and paragraph links
- Search works within a single book or across every book, chapter and page, and any paragraph can be linked to directly.
- Built-in diagrams
- The page editor has diagrams.net drawing built in, so diagrams can be created without leaving the documentation.
- Roles, permissions and sign-in
- A role and permission system locks down content and actions. Sign-in supports OIDC, SAML2 and LDAP besides email and password, and multi-factor authentication can be enforced per role.
- Revisions and API
- Page revisions and image management are built in, and each instance documents an API covering pages, chapters, books, shelves and attachments.
Outline
- Markdown-friendly editor
- The editor supports Markdown, slash commands and interactive embeds. Documents and their version history are unlimited on every tier, including the free Community Edition.
- Real-time collaboration
- Several people can edit a document at the same time, and comments, threads and @mentions keep the discussion attached to the text.
- Search and AI answers
- Search covers the whole workspace, and questions about your documents get direct AI answers. AI answers are in every cloud tier but need a paid license when self-hosting.
- Permissions and public sharing
- Read and write permissions, user groups and guest users control access. Documents can be shared publicly by link, with your own brand colors, logo and domain.
- Self-hosting
- Outline can run on your own infrastructure, either as the free Community Edition or with a paid Business or Enterprise license that adds features such as SAML 2.0.
- Integrations and API
- More than 20 integrations cover tools such as Slack, Figma, GitHub, GitLab and Zapier, and an API with webhooks is included on every tier.
Plans
BookStack
BookStack (self-hosted)Free
The full application on your own server, with community support through the project's discussions, Codeberg and Reddit.
Professional Support Plan£450
per year, VAT not included
Email and help-desk support covering installation and updating issues, with high-priority handling of bug and issue reports.
Enterprise Support Plan£4,500
per year, VAT not included
Everything in Professional, plus highest-priority handling, help with API integrations and up to 10 hours of video support a year.
Outline
Community Edition$0
Self-hosted on your own server: unlimited docs, real-time editing, SSO, integrations and the API, with no AI answers, guest users or support.
Cloud, 1–10 members$10
per month for the whole team; annual pricing available
Hosted by Outline with every cloud feature: AI question answering, SSO, templates, groups and permissions, API and webhooks, and a security audit log.
Cloud, 11–100 members$79
per month for the whole team; annual pricing available
The same features as the smaller tier. A team moves to this tier automatically once it has more than 10 members.
Cloud, 101–200 members$249
per month for the whole team; annual pricing available
The same features for 101 to 200 members. Larger cloud teams are asked to contact Outline for pricing.
On-Premises Business$4
per user / month, billed annually, 10-user minimum
Self-hosted license that adds AI question answering, guest users, SAML 2.0, extra security controls, a Confluence importer and the audit log.
On-Premises Enterprise$5
per user / month, billed annually, 100-user minimum
Everything in On-Premises Business, plus removal of Outline branding and a support contract.
Ways to pay less
BookStack
No public discounts listed.
Outline
- Nonprofit
30% off for non-profits
Outline's pricing FAQ offers non-profits a 30% discount on request, and says it will sponsor accounts for non-profits working directly on climate change.
- Education
30% off for educational institutions
The same pricing FAQ extends the 30% discount to educational institutions that contact Outline.
