Documentation tools don’t always offer the best experience. Several traditional wikis are clunky, and the cloud alternatives are pricey. Because of poor user experience and the cost of documentation, I abandoned documentation altogether. What broke the camel’s back was watching documentation become a collection of unfinished pages no one revisited.

However, I convinced myself to give documentation another go, and Docmost, the open-source collaborative wiki I turned to, unexpectedly gave a modern, pleasant user experience. I set it up, used it for a while, and documenting finally feels painless and reliable.

Writing and organizing knowledge in Docmost

A real-time editor designed for collaborative documentation

Docmost differs from MediaWiki and several other traditional wikis that rely on rigid formatting rules. It offers an editor that encourages real-time collaboration, similar to modern productivity apps like Notion. As multiple people work on the same page simultaneously, Docmost reflects edits immediately.

Docmost avoids edit conflicts that require manual resolution. This gives it a Notion and Google Docs-like feel in practice, where anyone with access rights can use the documents at any time. The only difference is that Docmost documents exist in your own hosted environment.

Its central philosophy is spaces, which represent teams, projects, or departments. I organize my documents into spaces for personal notes, server documentation, and project guides. These are tidy separations that have their own pages and permissions.

It has a simple sidebar with nested pages, which helps you find content without always using search. As documentation increases, you will appreciate the sidebar more. But the collaboration features I use the most are page history, comments, @mentions, and public sharing. These features make Docmost a real collaboration platform for documentation.

The features that make Docmost feel like a modern knowledge platform

Rich editing tools that make documentation easier to read

The Docmost editor’s flexibility stands out. While older wiki systems become rigid once you go beyond simple heading and paragraph formatting, Docmost uses visual editing tools and familiar Markdown shortcuts. I get instantly formatted text when I type Markdown. This feels natural because I’m already used to using Markdown.

But for anyone who doesn’t use Markdown, the rich text editor supports tables. You can add header rows or columns, and work with a resizable table rather than a fixed grid. Tables are indispensable tools for documenting configuration steps, compatibility lists, and comparisons.

I use toggle blocks to implement deeper explanations and optional steps, keeping long documentation pages readable. The main instructions stay clean, with the extra steps available only if someone needs them.

The various diagramming tools it supports help a lot with technical documentation. I embed diagrams from Draw.io, sketches from Excalidraw, and generate structured diagrams using Mermaid. These options help me avoid linking to external resources and keep documentation in one place. Even though I don’t use the KaTeX integration much, it’s a great option for anyone writing more technical material.

Docmost also does well with the smaller details:

• Keyboard shortcuts speed up formatting
• File attachments can be added directly to pages
• Dark mode keeps long editing sessions comfortable
• A read/edit mode prevents accidental edits when you’re just reviewing content

Getting Docmost running on your own server

The setup process is simpler than most self-hosted tools

Compared to other self-hosted, open source tools I’ve used, setting up Docmost is fairly straightforward. I recommend installing it via Docker. This way, the larger part of the installation is centered around a single Docker Compose file. You only have to adjust a couple of environment variables after downloading the Compose template and creating a folder. Here are the four important ones:

• APP_URL: defines where your instance will be accessed
• APP_SECRET: a long security key required for the application to run
• DATABASE_URL: connects the application to the PostgreSQL database
• REDIS_URL: connects the application to the Redis instance

Having basic server knowledge helps, but unlike some self-hosted tools I’ve used, you don’t need to piece together dependencies for the application to run.

OS

Windows, Linux, macOS

Developer

Docmost

Price model

Free with paid options, Open-source

An enterprise-ready Wiki for individuals and teams to securely manage knowledge. It can be deployed on-premises and facilitates migration from Confluence and Notion.

Managing access when multiple people use the wiki

Permissions and groups keep documentation organized

People’s contributions are what actually make documentation valuable, and Docmost implements a robust permission system. All elements exist within a workspace. However, spaces within a workspace have their own set of permissions that allow specific people to read, edit, or manage pages.

Your entire team may be able to read documents, but only a handful of contributors may have edit rights. You can also decide to restrict specific project pages to teams working on them. However, Docmost uses groups to simplify permissions. Rather than permitting individuals, you can create groups and assign access levels by group. Adding new team members to a group gives them the permission associated with that group.

For smaller teams or personal Docmost deployments, standard setups use email and password for authentication. However, for large teams, the enterprise edition allows other kinds of authentication, including:

• LDAP integration
• SSO via SAML or OIDC providers
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) using authenticator apps

Where Docmost fits among modern documentation tools

The only true way of understanding if Docmost is worth a try is by comparing it against other documentation tools. The table below shows how it stacks up against other tools I have used:

The most significant difference is hosting. Among these, Docmost is the one truly designed to run on your server. This matters because I care about data ownership.

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