Softwr

APIs · head to head

Convoy vs Outline

Convoy logo

Convoy

APIs

Open source webhooks gateway you self-host, handling both sending and receiving

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Outline logo

Outline

Documentation

Team knowledge base under the Business Source Licence, self-hostable or vendor hosted

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Convoy the default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.; Outline the Business Source Licence is not an open source licence, so anyone planning to host Outline for clients, resell it or embed it in a commercial service is prohibited until the per-release change date passes, and this is regularly discovered only at legal review.
  • They diverge on capability: Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Outline covers Structured collections.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Convoy and Outline actually diverge.

Attributes where Convoy and Outline differ
AttributeConvoyOutline
Pricing modelPer month, flat rate regardless of volumeFree to self-host, per user per month when hosted by the vendor
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, CloudWeb, Self-hosted, Docker, iOS, Android
CategoryAPIsDocumentation

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Convoy

  • Inbound and outbound
  • Broker-driven ingestion
  • Payload transformation
  • Portal links
  • Circuit breaking
  • Retry policies
  • OpenTelemetry export
  • Role-based access control

Only in Outline

  • Structured collections
  • Block editor
  • Search
  • Backlinks and mentions
  • Templates
  • API and webhooks
  • Single sign-on
  • Self-hosting

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Convoy

  • A fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party SaaS for compliance reasonsnot Outline
  • A high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licencenot Outline
  • A team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gatewaynot Outline
  • An engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing Kafka or SQS topicnot Outline

Outline

  • Running an internal wiki on your own infrastructure when documentation cannot leave a specific jurisdictionnot Convoy
  • Replacing a general-purpose workspace tool with something narrower where search speed and writing flow matter mostnot Convoy
  • Keeping engineering decision records and postmortems in templated documents that link to each other automaticallynot Convoy
  • Giving a company already standardised on Google or Okta a wiki that inherits identity and group membership directlynot Convoy

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Convoy

  • The default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.
  • Frain Technologies is a small startup, and putting customer-facing delivery infrastructure on it means accepting real vendor continuity risk on a component that is hard to swap out quickly.
  • The premium tier at a flat 999 US dollars a month is poor value below substantial volume, while the community edition omits the portal, transformations and RBAC that most production deployments end up wanting.
  • The hosted cloud trial is capped at one project and 100 events a day, which is too small to properly evaluate the service before committing.
  • Documentation and the third-party ecosystem are thinner than the established webhook services, so unusual configurations often mean reading the Go source.

Outline

  • The Business Source Licence is not an open source licence, so anyone planning to host Outline for clients, resell it or embed it in a commercial service is prohibited until the per-release change date passes, and this is regularly discovered only at legal review.
  • There is no local password authentication, so self-hosting requires an identity provider to be in place first, which turns a small internal wiki into a project with a dependency on Google, Okta, Entra or a Keycloak instance somebody has to run.
  • Self-hosting needs Postgres, Redis and S3-compatible object storage together, so the operational footprint is larger than the single database most internal wikis require.
  • The hosted plans offer no customer-selectable hosting region, so buyers with data residency obligations are pushed to self-hosting even when they would have paid to avoid running servers.
  • It is built for internal knowledge rather than public documentation, with no versioned documentation sets, no static output and limited public publishing, so it will not serve as a product documentation site.
  • Because it is a single-vendor project rather than a foundation-governed one, a future licence or pricing change applies to new releases and the only defence is staying on an older version.

Pricing, plan by plan

Convoy

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • Self-hosted open source gateway
    • Inbound and outbound webhooks
    • Automatic retries and message broker support
  • Premium$999/month
    • Flat rate irrespective of message volume
    • Portal links and payload transformation
    • RBAC, circuit breaking and white labelling
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • SAML SSO
    • Dedicated support with SLA
    • On-premises deployment assistance
  • Cloud$undefined/month
    • Hosted by Convoy
    • 14 day trial limited to one project and 100 events a day
    • Usage-based tiers above the trial

Outline

Free
  • Self-hostedFree
    • Source available under the Business Source Licence
    • No licence fee for use inside your own organisation
    • Requires Postgres, Redis and S3-compatible storage
  • Team (hosted)$undefined/month
    • Charged per user per month
    • Hosted and maintained by the vendor
    • Single sign-on through Google, Slack or Microsoft
  • Enterprise (hosted)$undefined/month
    • SAML single sign-on and provisioning
    • Administrative controls and audit visibility
    • Negotiated terms and support

Which should you pick?

Choose Convoy if

  • You need inbound and outbound.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
  • You also want broker-driven ingestion.
Convoy review

Choose Outline if

  • You need structured collections.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, iOS, Android.
  • You also want block editor.
Outline review

Questions people ask

Is Convoy or Outline better?
Neither clearly leads. Convoy starts at Free and Outline at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Convoy or Outline?
Convoy starts at Free and Outline at Free.
Does Convoy or Outline run on more platforms?
Convoy runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud. Outline runs on Web, Self-hosted, Docker, iOS, Android.
Can I use Convoy for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Convoy best used for?
Convoy is most often used for a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons, a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence, a team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gateway, an engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing kafka or sqs topic. Of those, a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons and a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence are not what Outline is typically brought in for.
What can Convoy do that Outline cannot?
Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Broker-driven ingestion, Payload transformation, Portal links. Outline covers Structured collections, Block editor, Search, Backlinks and mentions.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Convoy: Is Convoy really open source?

Yes, the community edition is open source and self-hostable, covering both inbound and outbound webhooks with retries.

Outline: Is Outline open source?

No, not in the OSI sense. It is source available under the Business Source Licence, which permits internal use and self-hosting but not offering it as a service to others, with each release converting to an open source licence after its change date.

Convoy: What does premium cost?

A flat 999 US dollars a month, self-hosted, regardless of message volume.

Outline: Can I run it for free?

Yes, for your own organisation. Self-hosting carries no licence fee, only the cost of running Postgres, Redis, object storage and an identity provider.

Convoy: Does it receive webhooks as well as send them?

Yes, inbound ingestion with verification and deduplication is a first-class feature, unlike most webhook services.

Outline: Can I choose where the hosted version stores data?

No. The hosted plans do not offer a region choice, so residency requirements mean self-hosting.

Convoy: Do I have to self-host?

No, there is a hosted cloud, but the trial is capped at 100 events a day and self-hosting is the primary model.

Outline: Does it work for public product documentation?

Poorly. It has no versioned documentation sets or static site output, so it is best kept for internal knowledge.

Share

Related pages

More on Convoy

More on Outline

Keep looking

Other head to heads