Notion vs Outline
Notion and Outline are both note-taking & docs tools. Notion is aimed at small businesses and freelancers, while Outline is aimed at developers and small businesses. Outline costs less, from $10/mo versus $12/mo for Notion. Both have a free plan.
All-in-one workspace for notes, docs and projects
Fast, self-hostable team knowledge base
| Pricing | Freemium · $12 | Freemium · $10 |
| Starting price | $12/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 30 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Freelancers, Enterprise | Developers, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web, ios, android, macos, windows | web |
| Country | US · 2016 | US · 2017 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Notion if
Startups and small teams (2–50 people) that want docs, wiki and simple project tracking in one place, and individuals who like building their own systems.
- Replaces several tools (docs, wiki, light PM, CRM) for small teams
- Extremely flexible data model; databases with relations and rollups
- Huge template ecosystem and integrations via API and Zapier/Make
Look elsewhere if: Engineering teams that need a strict issue tracker with cycles and estimates, finance teams that live in spreadsheets, or organizations that need offline-first access.
Choose Outline if
Engineering-led teams and companies wanting a fast wiki with predictable pricing or self-hosting.
- Flat per-workspace pricing by team size
- Open source and self-hostable
- Very fast and clean
Look elsewhere if: Teams wanting all-in-one workspaces or non-technical setups.
Notion vs Outline pricing
Notion
- Free$07-day page history, 10 guests, limited Notion AI trial
- Plus$12/member/mo$10/mo billed yearly; 30-day history, unlimited guests
- Business$24/member/mo$20/mo billed yearly; 90-day history, Notion Agent, AI notes
- EnterpriseCustomUnlimited history, zero data retention with LLM providers
Outline
- Starter$10/moCloud, 1-10 team members; annual pricing available
- Team$79/moCloud, 11-100 team members
- Business$249/moCloud, 101-200 team members
- Community Edition$0Self-hosted, limited features, no support
- On-prem Business$4/user/moSelf-hosted, billed annually, 10 user minimum
Notion · Key features
- Block-based editor with slash commands, synced blocks and 50+ content types
- Relational databases with table, board, calendar, gallery, timeline and list views
- Templates, buttons and database automations for repeatable workflows
- Notion AI: Q&A across workspace plus Slack, Drive and GitHub connectors
- Public publishing with custom domains (Notion Sites) and SEO settings
- Granular sharing: teamspaces, guests, page-level permissions and SSO on Business
Cons
- No native structure means workspaces sprawl without governance
- Slower on large databases; offline mode is limited
- Per-seat pricing adds up for large teams, AI bundled only in Business and up
Outline · Key features
- Markdown editor with slash commands and real-time collaboration
- Collections with nested documents and permissions
- SSO via Slack, Google, Microsoft, Okta and OIDC
- Fast full-text search and AI question answering
- Public sharing and publishing of docs
- Self-hosted or hosted; REST API and webhooks
Cons
- Wiki only; no databases or tasks
- Small team; features ship slower than big players
- Self-hosting requires Postgres, Redis and S3
Notion vs Outline: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Notion or Outline?
Outline starts at $10/mo and Notion at $12/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Notion and Outline have a free plan?
Yes, both Notion and Outline have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.