A collaborative wiki with spaces, nested pages, real-time editing and diagramming, aimed squarely at Confluence and Notion. The core is AGPL-3.0 but SSO, page-level permissions and MFA sit behind a paid enterprise licence.
Our verdict on Docmost#
Docmost is the newest thing in this list and the licence is the part to get right. The root LICENSE is AGPL-3.0, but the README carves out apps/server/src/ee, apps/client/src/ee and packages/ee under a separate proprietary Docmost Enterprise licence, and that ee server directory is a git submodule pointing at github.com/docmost/ee, which is a private repository. So the source you can clone is genuinely AGPL, and the docmost/docmost image you actually run contains closed code unlocked by an offline-validated licence key. What is behind that key matters for self-hosters: SSO (SAML, OIDC, LDAP), page-level permissions, MFA, audit logs and the Confluence importer, at 6 US dollars per seat per month with a ten seat minimum. The free edition is a genuinely good wiki with spaces, comments, page history and collaborative editing, provided you accept local accounts and space-level permissions only.
Who Docmost is for#
Choose it if
- Small teams that want Notion-style nested pages and live co-editing without paying per seat
- People migrating off Confluence who can pay for the enterprise importer, or who will export to Markdown by hand
- Anyone who wants a modern editor and is fine with local accounts and space-level permissions
- Operators already running Postgres and Redis who can absorb a third app on the same host
Look elsewhere if
- You need SSO or per-page permissions and will not pay; both are enterprise-only and there is no plugin workaround
- You need long term stability guarantees; it is still on 0.x with fast-moving releases
- You want a fully open source stack, since the image you run bundles proprietary components even if you never enable them
What running it actually looks like#
The published compose file is three services: docmost/docmost on port 3000, PostgreSQL 18 and Redis 8 with --appendonly yes and --maxmemory-policy noeviction. Set APP_URL to the public address and APP_SECRET to at least 32 random characters; leave the placeholder and the app refuses to start. Mount a volume at /app/data/storage or every uploaded file lives only inside the container. First run drops you on a setup page where you create the workspace and the first account, which becomes the owner. Optional extras are GOTENBERG_URL for server-side PDF export and DRAWIO_URL for a self-hosted diagram editor; without them those features silently fall back or fail. Upgrades are a tag bump, with migrations applied on start.
Resource profile#
- Memory
- 500 MB idle, around 900 MB in ordinary use. Estimate for the app plus PostgreSQL 18 plus Redis 8 at rest; the Node process is the largest share and grows with concurrent editing sessions.
- CPU and acceleration
- Quiet at rest. Real-time collaboration pushes document updates through Redis, and server-side PDF export offloads to an optional Gotenberg container rather than burning CPU in the app.
- Storage growth
- Page content lives in Postgres. Attachments and images default to `/app/data/storage` inside the container, so that path must be a volume; S3 and Azure Blob drivers exist as alternatives.
- Operational load
- 3 of 5, Moderate. Three services with a real database, plus a pre-1.0 project shipping fast enough that reading release notes before each bump is not optional. Backup is a Postgres dump plus one storage directory, which keeps it off the heavy end.
Figures describe a small single-household install and are the working assumptions behind our stack planner. Your numbers will differ with library size, user count and hardware. See methodology.
Data and backup surface#
Two things: a pg_dump of the Postgres database and the storage directory. The database holds pages, page history, comments, spaces, groups and user accounts. Attachments and pasted images go to /app/data/storage under the default STORAGE_DRIVER=local, and nothing in the database dump will bring them back, so back up the volume alongside the dump. Redis holds queues and collaboration pub/sub and is regenerable, so skip it. Restore order is database first, then storage, then start the app so migrations settle against a complete schema. APP_SECRET belongs in the backup set too.
Derived backup shape
Postgres dump. pg_dump (or pg_dumpall) into a file, then snapshot that file plus the app's data volume.
Traps and surprises#
SSO is not in the free edition
SAML 2.0, OIDC and LDAP are Business tier features requiring a licence key, priced at 6 US dollars per seat per month with a ten seat minimum billed annually. There is no OIDC environment variable to find and no community plugin. If SSO is a requirement, either budget for it or pick BookStack or Wiki.js, both of which ship OIDC for free.
The enterprise submodule is private
.gitmodules points apps/server/src/ee at https://github.com/docmost/ee, which returns 404 to the public. A plain git clone --recurse-submodules of the repository fails on that submodule, and you cannot rebuild the official image from public source. Build from source only if you are prepared to work around the missing ee tree.
Page-level permissions are enterprise-only
The community edition scopes access at the space level. If you need one page inside a shared space hidden from most of the team, the free edition cannot express that and your only structural workaround is creating more spaces. Plan your space layout up front rather than discovering this after a hundred pages are filed.
Placeholder APP_SECRET stops the app dead
The docs are explicit that leaving APP_SECRET at the default REPLACE_WITH_LONG_SECRET value makes the app fail to start, and it needs at least 32 characters. Generate it with openssl rand -hex 32. Rotating it later invalidates sessions, so pick one and put it in the backup set with the database credentials.
Pre-1.0 versioning with real jumps
Releases move fast and skip numbers: v0.90.0 in May 2026, v0.90.1 a week later, then straight to v0.95.0 in July 2026 with 0.96 betas already published. Pin an exact tag rather than latest, take a database dump before each bump, and read the release notes, because a 0.x minor here is not a patch release.
Specifications#
- Category
- Documents, notes and knowledge
- Licence
- AGPL-3.0 core, proprietary Docmost Enterprise licence for `ee` directories (Copyleft)
- Written in
- TypeScript (NestJS + React)
- First release
- 2024
- Maturity
- Young
- Datastore
- PostgreSQL with Redis
- Default ports
3000- Ships as
- docker compose, node from source
- arm64 builds
- Yes
- Identity
- Local accounts only. The community edition has local accounts only; SAML 2.0, OIDC, LDAP, MFA and SCIM are all gated behind the paid Business or Enterprise tier and require a licence key.
- Replaces
- Confluence, Notion, Slab, Nuclino
- Project site
- docmost.com
- Source
- github.com/docmost/docmost
- Documentation
- docmost.com/docs
Alternatives to Docmost#
Everything else in documents, notes and knowledge, closest in operational weight first.
| Tool | Ops load | Idle RAM | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paperless-ngx | 3, Moderate | 450 MB | GPL-3.0 |
| Wiki.js | 3, Moderate | 260 MB | AGPL-3.0 |
| BookStack | 2, Light | 260 MB | MIT |
| HedgeDoc | 2, Light | 250 MB | AGPL-3.0 |
| Outline | 4, Heavy | 550 MB | BUSL-1.1 (Change Date 2030-09-01, converts to Apache-2.0) |
| Trilium Notes | 2, Light | 200 MB | AGPL-3.0 |
Where Docmost comes up elsewhere#
Head to head
Migration guides
Sources#
Facts on this page were checked against the project's own material. Where a number is our own estimate rather than a published figure, the text says so.
Published . Last reviewed . Found something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it and log the change.