Docmost: The Open Source Wiki That Doesn't Need an Identity Provider to Work

Confluence Data Center is dying. Atlassian stopped accepting new purchases in March 2026, and every existing license expires in March 2029 — after which instances go read-only. For thousands of organizations running self-hosted Confluence, the clock is ticking. And even for teams on Confluence Cloud or Notion, per-seat pricing that scales with headcount is increasingly hard to justify when good open source alternatives exist.

Docmost is the most compelling one right now. It's a collaborative wiki and documentation platform with real-time editing, spaces, nested pages, inline diagrams, and fine-grained permissions — running on a stack you control, with no per-seat fees and no data leaving your network. AGPL-3.0 licensed, 20,700+ GitHub stars, actively maintained with commits as recently as June 2026.

What Docmost is

Docmost is an open-source collaborative wiki and documentation platform founded by Philip Okugbe and positioned as a direct alternative to Confluence and Notion. It's written in TypeScript (Node.js), self-hosted via Docker Compose, and uses PostgreSQL and Redis as its only dependencies.

The core concept: a team knowledge base where pages live inside Spaces (organized by team, project, or department), multiple users can edit the same page simultaneously, and everything is searchable across the entire workspace. No external identity provider required to get started — built-in email and password auth works out of the box.

Enterprises including Airbus, the Australian Government, the German Red Cross, and the University of Bern use Docmost to manage their knowledge. Many are migrating from Confluence Data Center specifically because of the end-of-life timeline.

The license — AGPL-3.0 core, /ee for enterprise

Docmost uses the open-core model. The core platform is AGPL-3.0 — genuinely OSI-approved open source. Enterprise features (SSO via SAML/OIDC, LDAP, MFA, audit logs, Confluence importer, AI writing assistance, full-text search inside attachments) live in a /ee folder under a separate commercial license.

This is the same model as GitLab, Metabase, and Fleet — and it's the right tradeoff for most teams. The free Community Edition covers everything the majority of teams need: unlimited pages, unlimited spaces, real-time collaboration, diagrams, comments, page history, search, and file attachments. You pay only if you need SSO, audit logs, or SCIM at enterprise scale.

Importantly, the AGPL-3.0 core has no multi-tenant restrictions (unlike Outline's BSL) and no commercial-use clauses. Self-host it for your organization, modify it, use it internally — no license friction. This is the cleaner license story compared to several other tools we've covered on this blog.

Core features

Real-time collaborative editor

Multiple users can edit the same page simultaneously, with live cursor positions visible. The editor uses Markdown shortcuts that render inline — type **bold** and it becomes bold immediately, type ``` and a code block appears. It supports tables, LaTeX math equations, callouts, collapsible blocks, code blocks with syntax highlighting, mentions, and slash commands for inserting any block type.

Non-technical users will find it approachable. Technical users won't miss Markdown. The balance is well-executed.

Built-in diagrams — no integrations needed

Three diagramming tools are built in with no setup required:

• Mermaid — code-based diagrams (flowcharts, sequence diagrams, ER diagrams) rendered inline
• Draw.io — full visual diagramming editor embedded in the page
• Excalidraw — freehand whiteboard-style diagrams

For engineering teams that document architecture, system flows, and data models, having Mermaid and Draw.io built into the editor without a plugin or integration is a genuine differentiator. In Confluence you'd pay for a Draw.io plugin. In Notion you'd embed an external tool. In Docmost it's just there.

Spaces

Spaces organize your knowledge base into distinct areas — Engineering, Product, HR, Legal, Onboarding. Each space has its own permission settings: who can view, who can edit, who can manage. Pages nest infinitely within spaces and can be reordered via drag-and-drop in the sidebar.

This is the right organizational model for most teams. Not too rigid (like Confluence's project-based structure), not too flat (like a shared Notion workspace). Spaces map naturally to how organizations think about their documentation.

No external auth required

This is worth calling out explicitly because it's where Docmost differs most from Outline. Outline requires an external OIDC/OAuth provider before it will show you a login screen. Docmost ships with built-in email and password auth — you deploy it, create your admin account, invite your team by email, done. No Authentik integration required just to get your wiki working.

SSO (SAML 2.0 and OIDC) is available as an enterprise feature. For teams that already run Authentik or Keycloak, integrating it is straightforward — but it's optional, not a requirement.

Comments and page history

Inline comments on any text selection, threaded discussions, and comment resolution (enterprise). Every page change is tracked with the ability to view diffs between versions and restore any previous state. For documentation that evolves — architecture decisions, policies, runbooks — this audit trail is essential.

Search

Full-text search powered by PostgreSQL's built-in search capabilities. No Elasticsearch or Typesense required. For teams not needing search inside PDF attachments (an enterprise feature), the built-in Postgres search is fast and sufficient for most wiki use cases.

Self-hosting Docmost

One of Docmost's advantages is setup simplicity. Docker Compose, PostgreSQL, Redis — that's the entire stack:

services:
  docmost:
    image: docmost/docmost:latest
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis
    environment:
      APP_URL: 'https://wiki.example.com'
      APP_SECRET: ${APP_SECRET}
      DATABASE_URL: 'postgresql://docmost:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db:5432/docmost'
      REDIS_URL: 'redis://redis:6379'
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./docmost-data:/app/data/storage

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: docmost
      POSTGRES_USER: docmost
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  redis:
    image: redis:7.2-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped

Generate APP_SECRET with openssl rand -hex 32. Put Traefik in front for HTTPS and configure SMTP for email invitations and password resets — Docmost needs SMTP to send invite emails, so configure it before you invite your first user.

One important note: WebSockets must pass through your reverse proxy. If you use Traefik or Nginx, ensure WebSocket proxying is enabled — real-time collaborative editing depends on it.

Minimum requirements: 1 CPU core, 1GB RAM for a small team. Air-gapped deployments work without any external internet dependencies.

Docmost vs Outline

We covered Outline in depth on this blog, so a direct comparison is useful for teams choosing between them.

License — Docmost wins clearly. AGPL-3.0 is OSI-approved open source. Outline uses BSL 1.1 (source-available, not OSI open source), converting to Apache 2.0 in 2030. For teams with OSI compliance requirements, Docmost is the only option.

Setup friction — Docmost wins. Built-in email/password auth means you deploy and start working. Outline requires an external OIDC/OAuth provider before the login screen even appears.

Diagrams — Docmost wins. Mermaid, Draw.io, and Excalidraw built in. Outline has limited native diagram support.

Maturity and polish — Outline wins. ~39,000 stars vs Docmost's ~20,700. Outline has a more refined editor, better API documentation, deeper Slack integration, and a longer production track record.

Integrations — Outline wins. Slack, GitHub, Figma, Linear, Airtable embeds, and a mature REST API. Docmost's API exists but is less documented.

Resource footprint — Docmost wins. Both use Node.js, but Docmost's stack (Node + PostgreSQL + Redis) is lighter than Outline's (Node + PostgreSQL + Redis + S3-compatible storage as a requirement).

The practical recommendation: pick Docmost if the OSI license matters, you want diagrams built in, or you don't want to stand up an identity provider first. Pick Outline if you value the most polished experience and are already running SSO.

Docmost vs Confluence

The migration audience is real and growing. Confluence Data Center is end-of-life. Confluence Cloud is expensive at per-seat pricing. Teams evaluating replacements will find:

• Cost — Docmost Community Edition: $0 + server. Confluence Cloud: $5.75/user/month (Standard) to $11/user/month (Premium).
• Data ownership — Docmost self-hosted: your server. Confluence Cloud: Atlassian's servers.
• Diagrams — Docmost has Draw.io built in. Confluence requires the Draw.io plugin (paid add-on).
• Migration — Docmost's Confluence importer is available in the paid Business tier. Community Edition migration requires manual export/import.
• Enterprise features — Confluence has significantly deeper enterprise governance (fine-grained audit, Jira integration, compliance certifications). Docmost is catching up but isn't there yet for the largest enterprises.

Who it's for

Good fit:

• Teams migrating from Confluence Data Center before the 2029 end-of-life
• Organizations with data sovereignty or compliance requirements ruling out SaaS wikis
• Engineering teams who want Mermaid and Draw.io built into their documentation tool
• Teams that want Outline's experience but need a true OSI open source license
• Teams without an existing SSO provider who want a wiki that works without one
• Air-gapped environments needing a complete offline wiki

Not the right fit:

• Teams that need SSO on the free tier — that requires the paid Business plan
• Organizations needing the most polished editor and deepest integrations — Outline is more mature
• Teams that need Confluence-level enterprise governance today — Docmost is growing but not there yet

My take

Docmost is the tool to watch in the self-hosted wiki space in 2026. The combination of a genuinely clean OSI-approved license, no external auth dependency, built-in diagrams, and a rapidly growing community puts it ahead of most alternatives for teams starting fresh.

The Confluence Data Center end-of-life is a real forcing function. Organizations that have been running self-hosted Confluence for a decade suddenly need an alternative — and Docmost is the most credible modern replacement that keeps data on your infrastructure. The built-in Confluence importer (Business tier) makes that migration path concrete.

The comparison with Outline is honest: Outline is more polished and has more integrations. But Outline's BSL license is a genuine blocker for some organizations, and the "must configure an identity provider before anything works" setup friction is real overhead for small teams. Docmost clears both of those hurdles.

For the self-hosted stack we've been building across this blog — Gitea for code, Plane for project management, Traefik for routing, Authentik for auth — Docmost is the natural choice for documentation. Same server, same Docker Compose pattern, AGPL-3.0 license, works offline. It fits.