Documentation is something everyone wants to have but nobody wants to write. And the tool plays a key role here: if writing is unpleasant — there will be no documentation. Docmost tries to fix that.
Docmost is an open-source wiki engine with real-time collaboration. If you were looking for a self-hosted Notion alternative for documentation — this is it.
The Editor
The main reason to look at Docmost is the editor. It is block-based, like Notion: headings, lists, code, tables, Mermaid diagrams, image insertion. Formatting is intuitive, and Markdown support is solid — you can write in Markdown and see it in WYSIWYG.
Real-time collaboration works: multiple people can edit the same page simultaneously, seeing each other’s cursors. Not as polished as Google Docs, but for a wiki — it’s more than enough.
Organization
Spaces — the equivalent of folders. Inside — pages, nested pages, cross-references. Search is fast, indexing works instantly. There are access rights at the space level: public, team, private.
Self-Hosting and Requirements
Docker Compose, PostgreSQL. Goes up in 10 minutes. Resource requirements are modest: 512 MB RAM to run. With a large number of media files, you need disk space, but the engine itself is lightweight.
What’s Missing
The API is still in development — there is no proper REST API for programmatic access. Integrations with third-party services are absent. There is no mobile version; a responsive web interface exists but is not perfect.
Bottom Line
Docmost fills exactly one need — maintaining documentation — and does it well. If you don’t need a Swiss Army knife like Notion, but want a simple, fast, self-hosted wiki — Docmost is the best option today.