In short. Docmost is an open-source, self-hosted collaborative wiki and documentation platform — an open-source Confluence alternative (and Notion alternative) that runs on your own server. Released under the AGPL-3.0 license, it pairs a Node.js application with PostgreSQL for storage and Redis for real-time sync, shipping with spaces, granular permissions, page history, and built-in diagramming out of the box.
What Docmost Does
As a self-hosted, open-source Confluence alternative, Docmost covers the core of what a team wiki needs, without a per-seat bill:
- Real-time collaborative editing — multiple people editing the same page at once, with changes syncing live across sessions via a CRDT-based sync layer.
- Spaces with nested pages — organize documentation by team, project, or department, with pages nested to any depth and drag-and-drop reordering from the sidebar.
- Granular permissions and groups — control who can view, edit, or administer each space, down to individual pages.
- Comments and full page history — track changes made to a page over time and revert to any earlier version.
- File attachments with S3-compatible storage support — keep uploads on local disk or push them to any S3-compatible bucket.
- Built-in diagramming — Draw.io, Excalidraw, and Mermaid embedded directly in the editor, so diagrams don’t require a separate tool.
- Embeds — drop in Airtable, Loom, Miro, and similar content without leaving the page.
- Full-text search across all pages, plus a translated interface with support for 10+ languages.
- Built-in importers for migrating existing content over from Confluence or Notion, so switching doesn’t mean starting documentation from zero.
Docmost vs Confluence: Why Teams Switch
Search around and you’ll find results for both “open source Confluence alternative” and “confluence alternative open source” — Docmost is one of the few that also matches Confluence’s real-time, structured-wiki model rather than being a generic notes app. Set side by side, the practical differences come down to control versus convenience:
| Dimension | Docmost | Confluence |
|---|---|---|
| License | AGPL-3.0 (open source) | Proprietary |
| Hosting | Self-hosted, on your own server | Cloud (Atlassian-hosted) or self-managed Data Center |
| Cost | Free — you only pay for infrastructure | Roughly $5–$12/user/month for Cloud Standard/Premium; custom pricing for Data Center and Enterprise |
| Auth | Email/password built in; SSO (SAML, OIDC, LDAP) on the paid Business/Enterprise tier | SSO and advanced permissions from the Standard tier up |
| Setup complexity | Docker Compose: app, PostgreSQL, and Redis | Managed for you (Cloud) or a self-managed install (Data Center) |
Docmost also ships with built-in importers for Confluence and Notion exports, so teams migrating away from either tool can bring existing pages over rather than rebuilding a wiki from scratch. That import path is a big part of why teams currently paying per seat for Confluence Data Center or Cloud consider switching in the first place.
Docmost vs Notion: What’s Different
Notion has no self-hosted option — it’s SaaS only, and your data lives on Notion’s servers. Docmost, as an open-source Notion alternative, trades Notion’s all-purpose flexibility (databases, formulas, kanban boards) for something narrower but easier to control: a dedicated wiki with real-time editing, permissions, and full data sovereignty. Docmost isn’t the only name among self-hosted Notion alternatives, but its wiki-first design puts it closer to Confluence’s model than to Notion’s do-everything workspace — the same notion vs confluence tradeoff (flexible workspace vs. structured wiki) plays out here. Pick Docmost when the job is documentation, not project tracking.
Docmost Docker Architecture: App, PostgreSQL, and Redis
A Docmost docker deployment runs three services together. Under the hood, the app server is built on NestJS with a Fastify HTTP adapter, using Kysely as a type-safe query builder over PostgreSQL for all persistent storage. Redis does more than caching here — it backs the real-time collaboration layer, and also runs the background job queue that handles tasks like attachment indexing and notifications.
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| App (Node.js / NestJS) | Serves the web UI and API, and runs the rich-text editor and business logic |
| PostgreSQL | Stores all persistent data — workspaces, pages, users, permissions, page history |
| Redis | Powers real-time collaboration, caching, and the background job queue |
| S3-compatible storage (optional) | Stores file attachments instead of local disk |
All three run comfortably on a single small VPS — community deployment guides typically call for 2 GB RAM as a floor, with more headroom recommended once a team’s page and attachment volume grows, since both Postgres and Redis benefit from extra memory. For a self-hosted knowledge base like this, RAM is the resource that matters most, which is exactly where Contabo’s RAM-per-Euro Core line earns its keep: a Cloud VPS 4 (4 vCores, 8 GB RAM) comfortably runs the full Docmost stack — app, database, and Redis — with room to spare, and there’s headroom to size up to a Cloud VPS 6 or 8 if attachment storage or concurrent editing load grows.
Who Uses Docmost
Docmost targets engineering teams, small-to-medium companies, and anyone running documentation under strict data-residency rules who can’t send it to a US SaaS vendor — in other words, internal wiki software for teams that need to keep data in-house. It can also run fully air-gapped, without any connection to the public internet, which matters for organizations bound by ITAR, defense-export controls, or similar rules that a multi-tenant cloud wiki simply can’t satisfy. The project has passed 20,000 GitHub stars with frequent releases. According to Docmost’s own customer list, organizations including Airbus, the Australian Government, the German Red Cross, and Bechtle GmbH use it to manage internal knowledge, mostly in cases where GDPR, ITAR, or similar compliance rules rule out a multi-tenant cloud wiki.
Docmost Limitations to Know
Nothing here is a dealbreaker, but worth knowing before you commit a team’s documentation to Docmost self-hosted:
- Enterprise SSO (SAML, OIDC, LDAP) sits behind the paid Business/Enterprise tier — the free AGPL edition uses email/password auth only, so larger organizations wanting directory-based login should budget for the paid tier.
- No Confluence-style automation or macros — Docmost is a wiki, not a workflow engine, so anything beyond structured documentation needs a separate tool.
- Newer project than some incumbents: in the Docmost vs Outline comparison, Outline has a longer production track record, though Docmost’s release cadence has been fast and the codebase is actively maintained.
- No public “publish to the web” mode — every page lives behind authentication, with no built-in way to expose a page publicly the way Notion or Confluence’s public-link sharing does.
FAQ: Docmost
Docmost is used as a self-hosted team wiki and documentation platform — the same role Confluence or Notion play, but running on infrastructure you control. Teams use it for internal knowledge bases, engineering documentation, onboarding guides, and any content that needs to stay off third-party servers for compliance or cost reasons. It’s a good fit anywhere a team currently maintains scattered docs and wants one searchable, permissioned home for them.
The core Docmost application is free and open-source under the AGPL-3.0 license, with no per-seat fees or feature gates on core functionality — real-time editing, spaces, permissions, and diagrams are all included. A paid Business/Enterprise tier adds SSO, advanced permissions, and AI features for teams that need them; self-hosting the community edition yourself costs only the infrastructure it runs on.
Docmost stores all persistent data — workspaces, pages, users, and permissions — in PostgreSQL, queried through the Kysely query builder. Redis runs alongside it to handle real-time collaboration, caching, and background jobs. Both are required; the official Docker Compose file bundles all three services together, so a standard deployment doesn’t need any separate database setup.
Neither is universally better — it depends what you’re optimizing for. Confluence gives you a managed cloud service with a large marketplace ecosystem and deep Jira integration; Docmost gives you full data control, no per-seat licensing cost, and self-hosted deployment at the price of running your own infrastructure. Teams under strict data-residency rules or tight budgets tend to prefer Docmost; teams already deep in the Atlassian ecosystem often stay on Confluence.
Yes. Multiple users can edit the same page at once, with changes syncing live across sessions and cursors visible for each collaborator. The collaboration layer runs on a CRDT-based sync engine coordinated through Redis, so simultaneous edits merge cleanly instead of overwriting each other — the same underlying approach tools like Google Docs use for concurrent editing.
