HackMD vs Outline

Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.

HackMD

Real-time collaborative Markdown editor and knowledge base

Free plan · from $4/mo

Outline

Fast team knowledge base and wiki, cloud-hosted or self-hosted

Free plan · from $10/mo

Where they differ

HackMD starts at $4 per month, billed yearly (Prime for a personal workspace). Outline starts at $10 per month for a team of 1 to 10 members (cloud-hosted).
Only HackMD lists a browser extension.
Only Outline lists macOS and Windows apps.
Outline is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
HackMD also covers notes, templates and presentations.
Outline also covers AI search and wiki.

In commonFree planWebPublic APIReal-time collaborationMarkdown

	HackMD	Outline
Pricing	Free plan	Free plan
Starts at	$4 per month, billed yearly (Prime for a personal workspace)	$10 per month for a team of 1 to 10 members (cloud-hosted)
Free plan	Free forever: unlimited notes, up to 3 teammates, 3 custom templates, the 10 most recent versions, 20 GitHub pushes and 400 API calls a month, and images up to 1 MB each.	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
Browser extension
Made by	HackMD	General Outline, Inc.
Price read from	hackmd.io	getoutline.com
Checked	Oct 5, 2026	Oct 5, 2026

HackMD

Outline

HackMD

Free team workspaces stop at 3 members; a larger private team pays per seat for Prime.
Full-text search and PDF export are not on the Free plan, which also limits images to 1 MB each.
SSO, role-based access control, custom domains, GitLab integration and self-hosting are Enterprise only.
HackMD is used in the browser on desktop, tablet and phone; the site mentions browser and VS Code extensions rather than native apps.

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.

HackMD

Real-time Markdown editing: Several people edit a note at once with multiple cursors, in an editor that can show the Markdown source, the rendered result or both side by side.
Comments and suggested edits: Notes take in-line and page comments, mentions and suggested edits. Read, write and comment permissions can each be set to owners, signed-in users or everyone.
Version history: Every edit is tracked so an earlier version can be recovered. The Free plan keeps the 10 most recent versions and Prime keeps them all.
GitHub sync: Notes can be pushed to GitHub: 20 pushes a month on the Free plan and unlimited on Prime. GitLab integration is an Enterprise feature.
Slide and book modes: A note can be organized into slides with a special syntax and presented in slide mode, and book mode turns an ordered list of note links into a collection.
API and CLI: Any note can be pulled as Markdown, or written back, through the REST API or CLI. Free workspaces get 400 API calls a month and a Prime team gets 20,000.

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.

HackMD

Free$0
Unlimited notes, up to 3 teammates, 3 invitees, 3 custom templates, GitHub integration with 20 pushes a month, and images up to 1 MB each.
Prime (personal)$4
per month, billed yearly ($6 billed monthly)
For a personal workspace: full-text search, PDF export, unlimited versions, invites, templates and GitHub pushes, and 10K API calls a month.
Prime (team)$5
per seat / month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly)
For a team workspace: seats beyond the 3 free members, the same Prime features, 20 MB image uploads and 20,000 API calls a month.
EnterpriseCustom
Adds SSO through SAML or LDAP, role-based access control, a custom domain and homepage, GitLab integration, self-hosting and priority support.

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.

HackMD

Annual discount
Lower Prime prices with yearly billing
A Prime team seat is $5 a month billed annually against $8 billed monthly, shown as a 37.5% saving. Personal Prime is $4 a month billed yearly against $6.
Nonprofit
Non-profit sponsorship program
Non-profits and educational organizations can apply by email for sponsorship. On approval, a free private team can be expanded from 3 to 20 members.

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.