When the free Outline edition is enough and when Business or Enterprise is needed
Whether a team can self-host Outline for free depends on whether it needs SAML, guest users, removal of Outline branding or a vendor support contract. If none of those is a requirement, the community edition may be enough. If one of them is, the paid self-hosted license is the path to check, because those features sit behind the paid tiers rather than in the free build. The community edition has no native email and password login, so every installation must connect to an external authentication provider. Outline's hosting docs cover Google, Microsoft Entra, Slack, OIDC, Discord, GitLab, passkeys and email magic link sign-in. A small internal team that already runs an OIDC provider or uses Google Workspace or Entra may never need a paid tier, since the login method it already trusts works without a license. Before deciding, confirm which of those providers your identity team can register Outline against and whether your users are all inside that directory.
Ask one question before buying: does the identity model require SAML 2.0? SAML login is available only in the Business and Enterprise editions, according to Outline's SAML hosting doc, so a team whose identity provider only speaks SAML cannot use the free build at all. Guest users and branding removal are also tied to the Enterprise tier, so an organization that shares pages with external partners or must remove Outline branding should price the license early. Per-user pricing is listed on the Outline pricing page, with Business at 4 US dollars per user per month billed annually and a 10-user minimum, and Enterprise at 5 dollars per user per month with a 100-user minimum. Those figures are list prices, so confirm current terms with Outline before budgeting.
Which Outline features sit in the free edition and which are paid
This table compares the free Community edition with the self-hosted Business and Enterprise licenses on the features that most often decide an upgrade. Where a row says to confirm, the feature is not listed in Outline's documented facts, so check Outline's pricing page before you rely on it. The main takeaway is that SAML 2.0 and branding removal are paid features, and guest users and a support contract are documented only for Enterprise.
| Feature | Community (free) | Business (self-hosted) | Enterprise (self-hosted) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAML 2.0 sign-in | No | Yes | Yes |
| Guest users | Not listed for Community | Confirm on the pricing page | Included per Outline's pricing page |
| Outline branding removal | Not included | Not included; requires Enterprise tier | Included; requires Enterprise tier |
| Support contract | No vendor support contract documented | Confirm with Outline | Included per Outline's pricing page |
| Sign-in methods | Google, Microsoft Entra, Slack, OIDC, Discord, GitLab, passkeys, email magic link | Same methods plus SAML 2.0 | Same methods plus SAML 2.0 |
| Notion importer | Available from v0.83.0 | Available from v0.83.0 | Available from v0.83.0 |
| Listed integrations | GitHub, Linear, Figma, Slack, Jira, webhooks; confirm per edition | GitHub, Linear, Figma, Slack, Jira, webhooks; confirm per edition | GitHub, Linear, Figma, Slack, Jira, webhooks; confirm per edition |
| Price model | Free under the Business Source License 1.1 | $4 per user per month, billed annually, 10-user minimum | $5 per user per month, 100-user minimum |
How the BSL license, support and updates differ by edition
The community edition of Outline is free to self-host under the Business Source License 1.1, but it carries no contracted support and comes with license limits on how it can be offered to others. The paid Business and Enterprise licenses change what you receive and what you can guarantee internally, so each card below names one thing to check before choosing an edition.
Business Source License 1.1 is not open source
The community edition is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, which the license itself does not treat as an OSI-approved open source license. That matters for procurement policies that accept only OSI-approved licenses. Ask legal to review the LICENSE file in the exact version you plan to deploy, because the terms govern whether you can use Outline internally, modify it and redistribute it.
No document service offering
The license prohibits using Outline as a Document Service, meaning a commercial offering that lets third parties create their own teams and documents. An internal knowledge base for your own staff is the normal use case. If you plan to host Outline for customers, partners or subsidiaries outside your legal entity, treat that as a licensing question, not an infrastructure one, and confirm it before any build starts.
Apache 2.0 change license
The BSL for version 1.11.0 names the Apache License 2.0 as the change license. Under the change date, the code moves to Apache 2.0, which is an OSI-approved license. Plan your governance around that date, but do not assume the change date changes your current obligations, and confirm with the maintainers how the terms apply to each release you run.
Hosting as a service ends your rights
Outline's hosting docs state that selling, reselling or hosting Outline as a service breaches the BSL terms and automatically terminates your license rights. This applies to the community edition and to any self-hosted deployment you run for others. Before you offer a shared wiki to a client or business unit, confirm whether the Business or Enterprise license covers that use case.
Business and Enterprise add functionality
The paid self-hosted licenses add functionality that the community edition does not include, such as SAML 2.0 sign-in and guest users. Business is priced at 4 US dollars per user per month billed annually with a 10-user minimum, and Enterprise at 5 US dollars per user per month with a 100-user minimum. Map each feature your identity and access policy needs against the edition table before you buy.
Support is contracted only in Enterprise
The free community edition includes no contracted support, so fixes depend on public channels and your own staff. The Enterprise license includes a support contract and removal of Outline branding. Ask the vendor for the response commitments, hours and escalation path in writing, since the pricing page does not describe them, and compare those terms against the internal on-call cost you would otherwise carry.
What the BSL forbids when offering Outline as a service
The line that matters is between running Outline for your own staff and selling, reselling or hosting it for third parties. Outline's hosting docs state that selling, reselling or hosting Outline as a service breaches the Business Source License terms and automatically terminates the license rights. Running a single organization's wiki on infrastructure you control for your own employees, contractors and guests sits on the internal side of that line, but the moment your model gives outside customers their own workspace on your platform, the terms apply and you should treat the risk as serious.
The license also names a specific restriction: it forbids using the community edition for a *Document Service*, which the license describes as a commercial offering that lets third parties create their own teams and documents. In plain terms, if the people creating teams and documents in your Outline instance are not your own organization, the arrangement needs review. Ask yourself a concrete set of questions: who pays for the instance, who administers it, whether any third party receives an account that lets them create teams, and whether you would be selling access or a managed workspace to anyone outside your company.
Where your model is unclear, confirm it before you deploy, not after. Put the exact use case in writing and ask Outline directly how the Business Source License applies, and involve your own counsel for anything touching contracts with customers or partners. Also confirm the change date and change license named for version 1.11.0 in the license file, since they determine when the terms move to Apache License 2.0. Document your answer in your architecture or license register so that the reasoning survives staff changes and audits.
What Outline self-hosting costs by edition
This table separates the license fee from the costs you pay regardless of edition, so you can see what changes when you move from Community to Business or Enterprise. Read the license rows first, then the infrastructure and staff rows, which usually decide the total.
| Cost component | Who you pay | One-time or recurring | What drives it and what to ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community license | No license fee; Outline Community is free under the BSL 1.1 | Not applicable | Free to self-host internally, but the BSL bars offering Outline as a hosted service to third parties. Confirm your use case fits the terms. |
| Business license | Outline, per the vendor's pricing page: 4 US dollars per user per month, billed annually, 10-user minimum | Recurring | Scales with named users. Ask whether the quote is billed annually and how the 10-user minimum applies to your headcount. |
| Enterprise license | Outline, per the vendor's pricing page: 5 US dollars per user per month, 100-user minimum | Recurring | Includes guest users, SAML 2.0, branding removal and a support contract. Ask what the support contract covers and its response terms in writing. |
| Hosting infrastructure | Your cloud account, data center or hardware provider | Recurring | Driven by user load and horizontal scaling. Ask your platform team to size compute for your expected concurrency. |
| PostgreSQL and Redis | Your database and cache service, or your managed provider | Recurring, plus one-time setup | Outline requires PostgreSQL 14 or newer and Redis 4 or newer. Managed services add fees; self-run instances add patching work. |
| File storage | Your local disk or S3-compatible object storage provider | Recurring | Grows with attachments and history. Confirm your backup and retention policy before sizing storage. |
| Authentication provider | Your identity provider, such as Google, Microsoft Entra, Slack or OIDC | Recurring for the provider, one-time for integration | Outline does not support email and password login natively. Confirm which provider you already license and whether SAML requires Business or Enterprise. |
| Staff time for deployment and operations | Your internal team or an implementation partner under a written scope | One-time for deployment, recurring for upgrades and on-call | Outline's hosting docs say production operation requires dev-ops experience. Ask any partner for a fixed scope, deliverables and handover plan in writing. |
Which edition suits which organization
A small internal team that already runs an OIDC provider and does not need SAML can often run the free community edition. Outline supports OIDC sign-in in its hosting docs, and the community edition covers the core wiki features your team will use day to day. The cost you carry is operational: you will run PostgreSQL 14 or newer, Redis 4 or newer, file storage, a dedicated domain and the identity connection yourself, and Outline's docs say it requires dev-ops experience to run in production.
- Identity fit: Your existing OIDC provider covers sign-in, so the SAML feature in the paid tiers adds little for this group.
- Guest access: If the team does not need to invite people outside the company, the guest user feature in the Enterprise license is not a deciding factor.
- Branding: Internal readers rarely need Outline branding removed, so the Enterprise tier for branding control is usually unnecessary.
- Support: Without a support contract, your team relies on its own troubleshooting and the public documentation.
- Upgrade path: Keep a paid license in view if the team grows into a company-wide rollout that needs SAML.
Before you commit, confirm with Outline's pricing page which features each self-hosted tier includes today, and confirm that your OIDC provider's claims map cleanly to the user accounts you need.
A mid-size company that standardizes on SAML for its identity provider, or that must share documents with external partners, reaches the point where the paid edition matters. SAML login is available only in the licensed Business and Enterprise editions, and guest users are part of the self-hosted Enterprise license. If your identity provider speaks only SAML, the community edition cannot meet that requirement without a different sign-in method, so the license decision is made before you design the rollout.
- SAML requirement: If your directory team mandates SAML 2.0, plan for a Business or Enterprise license from the start.
- Guest users: Partners and contractors who need page access are covered by the guest feature in the self-hosted Enterprise license, not in the community edition.
- Seat count: Business is listed at 4 US dollars per user per month billed annually with a 10-user minimum, and Enterprise at 5 dollars per user per month with a 100-user minimum, so confirm which tier your headcount and guest count fall into.
- Operations: Whichever tier you choose, your team still operates the database, cache, storage and domain.
- Exit planning: Record which features depend on the license so a later change does not break access.
Before you buy, ask Outline for a written quote that states which users count toward seats, how guests are counted, and whether SAML is included in the tier you select.
A regulated organization usually needs two things the community edition does not provide: a support contract with a named commitment, and control over Outline branding in internal and customer-facing pages. Outline's pricing page says the self-hosted Enterprise license includes a support contract and that removing Outline branding requires the Enterprise tier. For a bank, healthcare provider or public body, these items often matter more than the per-seat price, because they tie the wiki to vendor accountability and to its approved look.
- Support contract: Ask what response commitments the Enterprise support contract covers, in writing, before you rely on it for production.
- Branding removal: Confirm the Enterprise tier as the only way to remove Outline branding, and check whether your policy requires it.
- Single sign-on: SAML is only in the paid editions, so the license also governs how your central identity controls apply.
- Evidence: Support terms, license terms and configuration records become inputs to your own compliance evidence, which DeployOpen can help prepare but auditors and certification bodies assess.
- Hosting footprint: Confirm where the data, file storage and backups live inside your own infrastructure.
Before you commit, ask Outline to confirm the support scope, response expectations and license terms in the contract you will sign.
A provider that considers hosting Outline for clients must read the license before any other step. Outline's Business Source License 1.1 forbids using the community edition for a Document Service, which is a commercial offering that lets third parties create their own teams and documents. Outline's hosting docs also state that selling, reselling or hosting Outline as a service breaches the BSL terms and automatically terminates license rights, and that paid Business and Enterprise licenses add functionality and guarantees. Paying for a license does not by itself grant permission to resell the service, so ask Outline directly for the terms that cover your model.
- Community edition: Treat it as unavailable for a managed service offered to third parties under the BSL terms.
- Paid licenses: Confirm in writing whether a Business or Enterprise license permits your specific hosted model.
- Change date: The BSL 1.1 text for Outline 1.11.0 names Apache License 2.0 as the change license with a change date of October 12, 2030, so the restriction is time-bound, not permanent.
- Client isolation: Design tenancy, data separation and backups as your own responsibility.
- Alternatives: If the license does not fit, compare other open-source wikis with licenses that allow hosting.
Before you sign any client contract, obtain legal review of the BSL text and Outline's written permission for your exact service model.
Moving from the community edition to a paid license
This sequence takes a running Outline community installation to a licensed Business or Enterprise deployment with SAML, guest access and a support contract in place, without losing existing accounts or content. Each step ends with a check you can record before the next one starts.
Confirm the running version and configuration
Before any license work, the platform or infrastructure owner records the Outline version in use, for example whether the instance is on 1.11.0 or an earlier release, and exports the current environment settings, database backup and file storage configuration. Check the version against the outline/outline releases page so you know which upgrade path applies. Done means you hold a dated backup, a written version record and a copy of the configuration file, stored outside the production host.
Define the features the license must cover
The product owner and security lead list the capabilities the deployment needs: SAML sign-in, guest users, removal of Outline branding and a support contract. Map each one to the edition that includes it, using Outline's pricing page, since SAML and guest users sit in the self-hosted Enterprise license, while the Business tier is priced per user with a 10-user minimum. Done means a signed-off requirements list that states the edition and the seat count you intend to buy.
Purchase the license and obtain the key
Procurement works with Outline on the commercial order for the chosen edition and seat count. Ask Outline in writing how the license key is delivered, which environment variable or setting it goes into, whether it is tied to a domain or instance, and how renewals and seat changes are applied to a self-hosted install. Done means you hold the license key, a written statement of the terms, and the confirmed application method from Outline.
Apply the key and restart in a staging copy
The platform engineer applies the license key to a staging copy restored from the production backup, using the method Outline confirmed, then restarts the services and checks that the paid features show as active in the admin settings. Confirm the application the same way on production later. Done means the staging instance reports the licensed edition and the restored content loads without errors.
Enable SAML and guest users on staging
With the paid license active, the identity administrator configures SAML 2.0 against the identity provider, following Outline's SAML hosting documentation, and the workspace admin enables guest users for the groups that need them. Test the assertion attributes, group or role mapping and logout behavior with a pilot group. Done means a pilot user can sign in through SAML, a guest account can see only the collections shared with it, and the results are recorded.
Verify branding and support contacts
The communications owner checks that custom branding is applied to the workspace and any login pages, and that the support contact and escalation route from the support contract are entered in the internal runbook. Confirm the contract coverage in writing with Outline before relying on it. Done means a screenshot set of the branded pages, a named support contact list, and a signed confirmation of the support scope.
Test sign-in with existing accounts before cutover
Before production cutover, a sample of real users from each existing sign-in method sign in on staging, including their existing content access, to confirm accounts map to the same identities and no duplicate users appear. Outline does not support email and password authentication natively, so confirm each legacy method is covered by the chosen provider. Done means a written test log with every sample user passing, and a rollback plan approved by the owner.
Cut over to production and record the change
During an agreed change window, the platform team applies the license key and SAML settings to production, announces the switch to users, then runs the same sign-in and access checks. Keep the staging test log and the production check results in the change record, along with the version and backup references from the first step. Done means production reports the licensed edition, the checks pass, and the change record is closed with the owner's sign-off.
Questions buyers ask before choosing an Outline edition
How much does a paid Outline self-hosted license cost per user?
Outline's pricing page lists self-hosted Business at 4 US dollars per user per month, billed annually, with a 10-user minimum, and self-hosted Enterprise at 5 US dollars per user per month with a 100-user minimum. Those are list prices for the license only. Your total cost also includes the PostgreSQL database, Redis, file storage, a domain, an authentication provider, and the people who run the server. Ask any quote to separate the license fee from infrastructure and labor, and to state whether the figure is per active user or per seat.
How long does a self-hosted Outline rollout take?
No duration is published for Outline, so plan around your own environment rather than a vendor figure. The main drivers are whether you already run PostgreSQL 14 or newer and Redis 4 or newer, which identity provider you will connect, whether file storage is local or S3-compatible, how many users and documents you will migrate, and whether you need horizontal scaling. Your change-control and security review cycle often takes longer than the install itself. Ask any implementation partner for a written scope and timeline before work starts.
Can a team run the free Outline community edition alone?
Yes, the community edition is free to self-host, but it leaves out several features that many organizations need. Outline does not support email and password sign-in natively, so you must connect an external provider such as Google, Microsoft Entra, Slack, OIDC, GitLab or passkeys. SAML is not available without a Business or Enterprise license, and guest users and branding removal require the Enterprise tier. Also check the Business Source License terms before deciding, since they restrict offering Outline as a hosted service to third parties.
What dev-ops skills does a self-hosted Outline team need?
Outline's hosting documentation says it requires dev-ops experience to run in production. Your team should be comfortable with Docker or from-source installation, PostgreSQL administration, Redis, reverse proxies with TLS, backup and restore, and upgrades between releases. Outline runs only on Unix-compatible systems and needs a dedicated domain. If that skill set is thin, budget for ongoing support or a retainer, and ask the vendor or partner who will handle patching and incident response.
Is SAML single sign-on possible without a license for Outline?
No. Outline's SAML documentation states that SAML login is only available in the licensed Business and Enterprise editions. The community edition can use other supported providers, such as Google, Microsoft Entra, Slack, OIDC, Discord, GitLab, passkeys or email magic link. If your identity provider only speaks SAML, you will need a paid self-hosted license or an identity broker that bridges to a supported protocol. Confirm the exact setup with your identity team before choosing a path.
Can a team move between Outline editions later?
Outline's pricing and hosting pages describe Business and Enterprise as paid licenses that add functionality and guarantees on top of the self-hosted product. Moving up typically means purchasing a license for the same installation, but confirm with Outline how a license key is applied to an existing deployment and whether any configuration changes are needed. Moving down, or changing how you host Outline, may change which features remain available. Ask for the upgrade and downgrade terms in writing, and test them on a copy of your data before the move.
What does the Business Source License mean for hosting Outline?
The community edition is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, which is not an OSI-approved open source license. Outline's hosting documentation says selling, reselling or hosting Outline as a service breaches those terms and automatically terminates license rights. The license also forbids using the software for a Document Service or a commercial offering that lets third parties create their own teams and documents. For internal use by your own employees this is usually straightforward, but legal counsel should review any plan to offer a wiki to customers. The change license named for Outline 1.11.0 is Apache License 2.0, with a change date of October 12, 2030.
What running Outline in production asks of your team
Running Outline in production is an operations commitment before it is a licensing decision. Outline's requirements doc calls for PostgreSQL 14 or newer and Redis 4 or newer, at least 512MB of memory with 1GB or more recommended, a dedicated domain, an authentication provider, and a Unix-compatible host. Outline's own hosting docs state that running it in production requires dev-ops experience. Before you compare editions, confirm that your platform team can own those database, cache, TLS and patching duties on a schedule, and that someone has the on-call rota to cover them. The Outline requirements documentation lists the baseline you should check against your own environment.
Two architecture choices fall to you. The first is horizontal scaling: Outline's hosting docs cover running more than one instance, and you must decide how many application nodes, how they sit behind your load balancer, and how sessions and background work are handled as traffic grows. The second is file storage, where you choose between local disk and an S3-compatible object store. Local storage keeps the footprint small but ties backup and restore to the host, while object storage moves that burden to a bucket you must also back up, replicate and secure. Document both decisions, along with the authentication provider you pick, because each one changes your recovery runbook. The effort is the same regardless of edition: a Community, Business or Enterprise deployment needs the same database, cache, storage and authentication work, and a paid license adds features and a support contract rather than removing any of that work.
How DeployOpen delivers Outline in either edition
DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up and documents self-hosted Outline inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks, whichever edition you license. Engagements start with a written, fixed scope that states which edition, authentication model and integrations apply.
How we scope
- Confirm the edition first: Community, Business or Enterprise, with the licensing position recorded in writing.
- Record the authentication provider, since Outline has no native email and password login and SAML needs a licensed edition.
- Document the intended use, including whether any third party will ever access the wiki, to check against the BSL limits.
How we build
- Deploy Outline with PostgreSQL 14 or newer, Redis 4 or newer, and the storage option your environment requires.
- Configure the chosen sign-in provider, SAML where licensed, and the integrations named in the scope.
- Test backups, restores, upgrades and horizontal scaling before the environment is accepted for use.
How we hand over
- Deliver runbooks for installation, upgrades, backups, secrets rotation and the license terms that apply.
- Document the configuration, network placement and access model so your own team can operate the environment.
- Walk operators through the handover and record which tasks remain with your team after acceptance.
How we support
- Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as a retainer with a separate written scope.
- Plan version upgrades against Outline's release cadence, with a test environment confirmed before production changes.
- Ask us to confirm which support tasks sit with DeployOpen and which stay with your own operations staff.
