Outline

Outline is an open-source team knowledge base and documentation platform that provides a blazing fast collaborative editing experience for organizing team knowledge in one centralized workspace. The platform features real-time multiplayer collaboration where multiple teammates can edit documents simultaneously with live cursors and synchronized updates. The intuitive editor supports full markdown including slash commands for rapid content insertion, interactive embeds for videos and external content, code blocks with syntax highlighting, tables, checklists, and rich media attachments. AI-powered search and question answering allows users to search across the entire workspace instantly and ask natural language questions about their documents to receive direct AI-generated answers grounded in their content. Integrated comments and threads keep discussions organized alongside the relevant documents. The platform integrates with over 20 third-party services including Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, Figma, Loom, Linear, and GitHub. Documents can be shared publicly with custom domains and password protection. The system provides granular permissions and access controls at both collection and document level. Available in over 20 languages, the platform supports dark mode and customizable themes. Outline is offered as a cloud-hosted service with a 30-day free trial, or can be self-hosted on-premises under the Business Source License, making it a popular open-source alternative to Confluence and Notion for teams prioritizing data ownership and privacy. Built by General Outline Inc. Copyright 2026.