Self-hosted alternatives to Confluence
Priced per user alongside Jira, so documentation costs scale with a team that barely reads it.
Below are 10 open-source projects that cover the same ground, each scored 0–100 on how actively it is actually maintained — commit volume, release cadence and recent trend. 7 of the 10 are currently rated healthy or better. Ordering reflects that score, not sponsorship.
| Project | Health | Activity (11 mo) | Stars | Licence | Last release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outline Extensible wiki for your team. | Thriving · 92 | 41k | BUSL-1.1 | 9 Sept 2026 | |
| XWiki Second generation wiki that allows the user to extend its functionalities with a powerful extension-based arch | Thriving · 85 | 1.3k | LGPL-2.1 | 17 Sept 2026 | |
| TiddlyWiki Reusable non-linear personal web notebook. | Healthy · 73 | 8.7k | BSD-3-Clause | 10 Jul 2026 | |
| Otter Wiki Simple, easy to use wiki software using markdown. | Healthy · 71 | 1.5k | MIT | 8 Sept 2026 | |
| LeafWiki A fast wiki for people who think in folders, not feeds. Fast editing. Tree navigation. Markdown on disk. | Healthy · 71 | 1.2k | MIT | 8 Sept 2026 | |
| docmost Community Edition Collaborative wiki and documentation software (alternative to Confluence, Notion). | Healthy · 70 | 22k | AGPL-3.0 | 8 Sept 2026 | |
| Dokuwiki Easy to use, lightweight, standards-compliant wiki engine with a simple syntax allowing reading the data outsi | Healthy · 70 | 4.7k | GPL-2.0 | 2 Sept 2026 | |
| WackoWiki WackoWiki is a light and easy to install multilingual Wiki-engine. | Steady · 60 | 55 | BSD-3-Clause | 18 Jul 2026 | |
| Wiki.js Modern, lightweight and powerful wiki app using Git and Markdown. | Slowing · 50 | 29k | AGPL-3.0 | 25 Sept 2026 | |
| BookStack Organize and store information. Stores documentation in a book like fashion. | Unrated | — | MIT | — |
How these were picked
Every project listed here is open source and can run entirely on hardware you control. We start from the categories that match Confluence's job — Wikis, Knowledge Management Tools — then rank by health score so that a popular-but-abandoned project never appears above a smaller one that is actively shipping. The scoring method is documented in full.
The scores are recomputed from repository data on every rebuild, so this page reflects the state of these projects as of 1 Oct 2026 — not the day it was written.
Outline
Extensible wiki for your team.
Best fit: Teams looking for an extensible, self-hosted documentation hub to centralise their internal knowledge bases.
Worth knowing: It uses the Business Source License, which places specific restrictions on commercial use and competitive hosting until the code converts to an open source licence.
XWiki
Second generation wiki that allows the user to extend its functionalities with a powerful extension-based architecture.
Best fit: It suits technical teams or organisations that need a heavily customisable knowledge base and are prepared to manage a Java-based stack.
Worth knowing: The Java runtime and extension architecture introduce a higher operational overhead and resource footprint than lightweight text-based alternatives.
TiddlyWiki
Reusable non-linear personal web notebook.
Best fit: It is a strong fit for technical users who want complete ownership over their personal knowledge base and prefer a single-file portable format or a lightweight server.
Worth knowing: The non-linear approach has a steep learning curve and may not suit teams looking for traditional hierarchical documentation or straightforward markdown editing out of the box.
Otter Wiki
Simple, easy to use wiki software using markdown.
Best fit: It suits small teams or self-hosters who want a simple, file-backed wiki that is quick to set up using standard container tooling.
Worth knowing: As a minimalist wiki, it lacks the advanced permission management, enterprise integrations, and extensive plugin ecosystems found in larger alternatives.
LeafWiki
A fast wiki for people who think in folders, not feeds. Fast editing. Tree navigation. Markdown on disk.
Best fit: It is a strong fit if you prefer maintaining your documentation repository as plain files on a local filesystem while retaining a web-based interface for reading and editing.
Worth knowing: As a relatively niche project with a modest community compared to mainstream alternatives, you may need to handle custom integrations and extensions yourself.