Happy Valley

Outline vs XWiki

Outline and XWiki are both note-taking & docs tools. Outline is aimed at developers and small businesses, while XWiki is aimed at enterprise and small businesses. Both have a free plan.

Outline

Fast, self-hostable team knowledge base

XWiki

Open-source enterprise wiki, self-hosted or cloud, now with MCP

PricingFreemium · $10Open source
Starting price$10/moNot published
Free planYesYes
Free trial30 days30 days
Built forDevelopers, Small businessesEnterprise, Small businesses, Developers
Platformswebweb, linux
CountryUS · 2017FR · 2004
Rating——

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.

Choose XWiki if

Organisations that want an open-source, self-hostable enterprise wiki with full data ownership and a supported path off Confluence.

  • Fully open source, so self-hosting has no licence cost
  • Data stays portable between cloud and self-hosted at any time
  • Scales to millions of pages and very large user bases

Look elsewhere if: Small teams that want a polished, low-maintenance docs workspace with monthly billing (Notion, Outline).

Outline vs XWiki pricing

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

XWiki

  • Open sourceFreeSelf-hosted XWiki under LGPL 2.1, community support
  • Starter€773/yr25 users, XWiki Cloud only, portal support; 3-year term saves 20%
  • Basic€1,486/yr25 users, cloud or on-prem, Pro Apps, LDAP/AD
  • Business€2,318/yr25 users, SAML/OIDC, IP allowlist, Confluence migration toolkit
  • Enterprise€33,990/yr500 users, SCIM, AI integration (beta), account manager

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

XWiki · Key features

  • Page hierarchies, templates, forms and structured data applications
  • Real-time co-editing with comments and unlimited version history
  • Search across pages, attachments and structured content
  • 900+ extensions plus Pro Apps for draw.io diagrams and office editing
  • Granular permissions with LDAP, Active Directory, SAML, OIDC and SCIM
  • Confluence migrator with 150+ supported Confluence macros

Cons

  • Interface and administration feel heavier than Notion or Outline
  • Prices are in euros and billed yearly, with no monthly plan
  • SSO via SAML or OIDC starts at the Business plan

Outline vs XWiki: FAQ

Do Outline and XWiki have a free plan?

Yes, both Outline and XWiki have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Not sure yet?