Links checked 2026-10-14
Self-hosting Outline
The self-hosted route instead of Confluence, Notion.
The application is a container; making it useful requires a database, an object store and a mail path configured correctly. Allow a weekend, not an evening.
What it is
A collaborative knowledge base for teams: markdown documents in collections, search, sharing links and permissions. It is a React and Node application published as a container image, and its licence is the Business Source License rather than an open-source one.
What you actually need
This is the reader's own hardware and configuration, not a price. We describe what a job needs; we do not put a figure on what self-hosting costs, because that depends on the provider, the term and the disk you choose.
- The server
- A VPS running the application container with the services it depends on. The project's hosting documentation is a workspace rather than a single page, and it is the place to read before you start.
- How it installs
- The published container image, following the project's hosting documentation.
- Data store
- PostgreSQL.
- What grows
- Documents and attachments need storage of their own; the hosting documentation covers what that storage looks like for a given deployment.
Before it is safe to expose
- PostgreSQL and Redis, the two services the project's own compose file declares alongside the application
- SMTP, or the console mailer the docs describe, for invitations and password resets
- Single sign-on configuration if you want the team to log in with the accounts it already has
- TLS in front of the app, since sharing links are the point
The trade-offs, specifically for Outline
- Outline is under the Business Source License, which is not an open-source licence. Read the terms before you build a process on top of it.
- A working install is the application plus PostgreSQL plus Redis, with a mail path for invitations. That is four things before a reader sees a page.
- The hosting documentation lives inside an Outline workspace, so there is no single manual to hand to whoever inherits the server.
- Search, single sign-on and exports all depend on configuration you own and will have to revisit at upgrade time.
And the six things you own from now on
These are true of every tool in this section, including Outline. They are also the reason to decide against self-hosting, which is a legitimate decision.
- You own the updates. Security releases have to be applied by you, on your schedule, and a project that stops publishing releases becomes your problem to notice.
- You own the backups, and a backup is not a backup until you have restored from it once.
- You own the uptime. There is no status page to watch and no support line to call when it stops answering.
- You own the security patches, the TLS certificate, the reverse proxy and the firewall in front of it.
- You are the on-call rota. The failure mode nobody plans for is being the only person who knows how the thing was set up.
- The hardware has a running cost and a lifetime. Disks fail, and the replacement is on you.
What you give up
- The managed service's hosting, upgrades and backups
- A vendor to escalate to when search or permissions misbehave
What you gain
- Team documents stay on infrastructure you control
- No per-seat subscription from the vendor
Elsewhere in the index
The box it runs on
A VPS running the application container with the services it depends on. The project's hosting documentation is a workspace rather than a single page, and it is the place to read before you start. That machine is the purchase this page is really about, and it is the one number we will not invent for you: the right size depends on the provider, the term and the disk, so check it on the provider's own page.
Hostinger
Hostinger's VPS product is the closest fit to a self-hosted application: its own page advertises root access, Docker and NVMe storage, with data centres in several regions.
See Hostinger's plansRead Hostinger's published pricing ↗DigitalOcean
Virtual machines billed as you use them, with separate volumes, snapshots and object storage for the parts you want to keep outside the server.
See DigitalOcean's plansRead DigitalOcean's published pricing ↗Hetzner
Cloud instances and dedicated servers with rates published per instance size, so the cost of a bigger box is visible before you move.
See Hetzner's plansRead Hetzner's published pricing ↗What to check before you buy
- A virtual machine you have root on, not a website plan with a control panel bolted on top.
- Snapshots or automated backups, and where those backups are stored.
- Block storage or object storage for the data that will outgrow the server's own disk.
- What the monthly rate renews at, rather than the first-term rate on the signup page.
- Where the data centre is, if the data has a jurisdiction attached to it.
The “See plans” links go through our own /go/ redirect and some are affiliate links, which pay us if you sign up. The descriptions and trade-offs on this page are written from the project's own documentation and are unaffected. The plain pricing link under each provider is not an affiliate link. See our disclosure.
Frequently asked questions about self-hosting Outline
Answers restate the notes on this page or point at the project's own documentation. Self-hosting moves work to you rather than removing it, and these answers say so.
What is Outline?
A collaborative knowledge base for teams: markdown documents in collections, search, sharing links and permissions. We cover it as a replacement for Confluence, Notion.
What do you need to run Outline yourself?
The published container image, following the project's hosting documentation. The requirements table on this page lists the server, the data store, what grows and what else to arrange first. Setup steps are at Outline's hosting documentation.
How hard is Outline to run yourself?
We rate it Involved. The application is a container; making it useful requires a database, an object store and a mail path configured correctly. Allow a weekend, not an evening.
What are the trade-offs of self-hosting Outline?
Our notes list these costs. Outline is under the Business Source License, which is not an open-source licence. Read the terms before you build a process on top of it. A working install is the application plus PostgreSQL plus Redis, with a mail path for invitations. That is four things before a reader sees a page.
What do you give up by running Outline yourself?
You take on what Confluence, Notion used to do for you. The managed service's hosting, upgrades and backups. A vendor to escalate to when search or permissions misbehave. Self-hosting moves that work to you rather than removing it.
What do you gain by running Outline yourself?
Our notes list these. Team documents stay on infrastructure you control. No per-seat subscription from the vendor.