Outline vs siyuan
Is it time to switch? We break down the differences so you can stop bleeding money.
Choose siyuan.
If you want to own your data, save money, and avoid vendor lock-in, siyuan is more popular among developers.
What Actually Matters
No fluff — just the differences that affect your decision
Both open source, different licenses: Outline uses Other, siyuan uses AGPL-3.0. Check the fine print if you're building commercial.
Both can run on your own metal with Docker. Full data ownership, no cloud dependency. We have deploy guides for each.
siyuan leads at 46.7k stars vs 40.9k, but both have solid communities. You won't be alone with either choice.
Both written in TypeScript. Same ecosystem, same talent pool — makes switching easier if you ever need to.
Try both — most offer free tiers. The right pick depends on your stack size, team, and tolerance for DevOps.
Outline
Fast, collaborative, knowledge base for your team built using React and Markdown.
Why Choose Outline
- ✓Sub-second search across all documents
- ✓Beautifully designed editor with Markdown shortcuts
- ✓Integrates with Slack, Figma, and 20+ tools out of the box
Drawbacks
- ×Hard to self-host (complex storage requirements)
siyuan
Self-hosted personal knowledge management software built with TypeScript and Go, providing a private note-taking platform.
Why Choose siyuan
- ✓Built with TypeScript and Go — high-performance backend
- ✓Self-hosted solution — full control over data
- ✓AGPL-3.0 license — free to use and modify
Drawbacks
- ×Self-hosting can be complex
- ×Smaller ecosystem compared to proprietary alternatives
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