Need a team knowledge base more than an all-in-one workspace?

Outline is a fast, focused alternative to Notion for team knowledge bases and documentation – on-premises or in the cloud.

Get started for free → Cloud hosted, 30-day free trial Deploy on-premises Self-hosted on your own server

Built for documentation.

Write with markdown shortcuts, slash commands, and media embeds. Outline focuses on documents and their structure rather than databases and custom views.

Access control & permissions.

Manage access with read & write permissions, user groups, guest users, public sharing, and more…

Structured & instantly searchable.

Nest documents in a hierarchy, automatically build a network of backlinks and search across everything in ms.

AI answers & built-in MCP.

Get instant answers from your knowledge base, or connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other AI assistants to search, read, and edit docs with the built-in MCP server.

Cloud hosted or on-premises.

Outline is available as a cloud hosted service that’s always up-to-date or as a self-hosted install on your own network. Notion is available only in the cloud.

	Outline	Notion
Content & collaboration
Multiplayer collaboration	Yes	Yes
Nested pages	Yes	Yes
Team templates	Yes	Yes
Version history	Unlimited	7–90 days
Databases & custom views	No	Yes
Security & admin
SAML single sign-on	Yes	Business plan
Audit log	Yes	Enterprise only
Install on-premises	Yes	No
Open source	Yes	No
AI & integrations
MCP server	Yes	Yes
AI answers	Yes	Business plan
Built-in agents	No	Yes

Frequently asked questions

Is Notion better than Outline?

It depends on what your team needs. Notion is a flexible all-in-one workspace with databases, project tracking, and custom AI agents. Outline is a focused knowledge base for documents, with a fast user-friendly editor, and it can run on your own infrastructure. If you need databases or many custom workflows, Notion is a strong fit.

Can I move my content from Notion?

Yes. Outline’s Notion import brings across pages, images, and attachments while keeping your structure.

Can I self-host Outline instead?

Yes. Outline can be installed on your own network. Notion is only available as a cloud service.

Ready to move from Notion? Get started in minutes…