head to head · open source
Outline vs saber
Outline has 40,628 GitHub stars, 3,569 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. saber has 4,817 stars, 371 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Outline leads on adoption by 743% (40,628 vs 4,817 stars). Outline is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; saber is written in Dart under GPL-3.0. Outline has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, saber 8%. Outline was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Outline | saber | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 371 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Outline if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick saber if
- You want the saber feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and saber fits your workflow better
About Outline
Outline is an open source knowledge base application built with React and Node.js, designed for teams needing a fast, collaborative documentation platform. It runs as a self hosted service or via a hosted option at getoutline.com, and its source code powers the public instance along with all supporting services. The project lives in the JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem and uses MobX for state management.
read the full Outline overview →
About saber
Saber is a cross platform, open source handwriting notes app for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows, built for students, professionals and anyone else who writes by hand on a screen and wants their notes to stay on their own terms.
read the full saber overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Outline or saber more popular?
Outline has 40,628 GitHub stars and saber has 4,817. Outline has the larger community by that measure.
Are Outline and saber free?
Both are open source. Outline has no licence declared in this registry, and saber is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Outline and saber?
Outline is written in TypeScript and saber in Dart. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Outline or saber?
Choose Outline if you want the larger community (40,628 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose saber if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.