Best Self-hosted Alternatives to Microsoft Viva

Wiki.js is a modern, lightweight wiki application designed for internal documentation, knowledge bases, and team collaboration. It focuses on modular extensibility, strong access controls, and flexible deployment options.

Key Features

• Markdown-based content editing with rich formatting and media support
• Modular architecture with many optional integrations (auth, search, storage, logging, rendering)
• Extensive administration interface for managing content, users, and settings
• Flexible access control for public, private, or mixed wikis
• Multiple authentication options including local auth and enterprise integrations (LDAP, SAML, OAuth2/OIDC)
• Two-factor authentication support for compatible authentication modules
• Compatible with multiple SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server, SQLite)

Use Cases

• Team knowledge base for processes, runbooks, and internal documentation
• Product and engineering documentation portal with structured pages
• Company intranet wiki with SSO-backed access control

Limitations and Considerations

• Some advanced capabilities depend on enabling and configuring specific modules and external services
• Database and authentication feature availability can vary depending on the selected backend and provider

Wiki.js is a solid choice for organizations that want a fast, customizable wiki with strong administration and authentication flexibility. Its modular design makes it suitable for both small private wikis and larger documentation hubs.

Docmost is a collaborative wiki and documentation platform designed for teams to create, organize, and share internal knowledge. It provides a modern editor with real-time collaboration and structured spaces, making it a practical alternative to tools like Confluence and Notion.

Key Features

• Real-time collaborative editing with live cursors and instant syncing
• Team spaces for organizing documentation by department, project, or domain
• RBAC-style permissions with groups and granular access controls
• Inline comments for discussions directly on pages
• Page history for tracking changes over time
• Built-in diagram support (Draw.io, Excalidraw, Mermaid)
• File attachments and rich embeds from external tools
• Full-text search across content
• Imports from Confluence, Notion, and HTML/Markdown files
• Multilingual UI with support for many translations

Use Cases

• Internal company wiki for policies, runbooks, and engineering docs
• Project documentation hub with permissions per team or space
• Publishing selected pages as a public-facing knowledge base

Limitations and Considerations

• Some functionality is reserved for an Enterprise Edition under a separate license from the AGPL-licensed core

Docmost combines collaborative editing, structured organization, and strong access controls to help teams manage documentation at scale. It is well-suited for organizations that want control over deployment and data while retaining a modern documentation experience.

Documize is an open source documentation and knowledge management platform positioned as a modern alternative to Confluence. It helps teams create, organize, and publish internal and customer-facing documentation with a structured, searchable wiki-style experience.

Key Features

• Spaces and categories for organizing documentation
• Label-based organization and discoverability
• Full-text search backed by the selected database engine
• Supports internal and external documentation use cases
• Single-binary server distribution for straightforward deployment
• Multiple authentication options including LDAP/Active Directory and Keycloak integration
• Multi-language UI support (with several translations included)

Use Cases

• Team knowledge base for engineering, IT, and operations runbooks
• Customer-facing product documentation and help content
• Centralized repository for policies, procedures, and internal documentation

Documize fits organizations that want a self-managed documentation system with enterprise-oriented features and database-backed search. Its Go-based backend and Ember.js frontend make it suitable for both small teams and larger deployments that need structured documentation and flexible authentication.

XWiki is an extensible, enterprise-focused wiki platform implemented in Java that provides runtime services for building collaborative applications and structured content. It is maintained as an open-source project and distributed under the LGPL license.

Key Features

• WYSIWYG and wiki-syntax editors with realtime collaboration support.
• Fine-grained rights and access management for spaces, pages and applications.
• Extension ecosystem with 900+ apps and an Extension Manager for installing apps, macros and skins.
• Structured data and in-page scripting to build small applications inside wiki pages (forms, classes, live tables).
• Packaged as a Java web application with Maven-based builds, CI pipelines, and a public source repository on GitHub.

Use Cases

• Internal knowledge bases and collaborative intranets for teams and enterprises.
• Documentation portals and product documentation sites that require structured content and versioning.
• Lightweight web applications built inside the wiki (custom apps, workflows, procedures) using XWiki's structured data and scripting.

Limitations and Considerations

• XWiki is a Java web application that requires a Java runtime, a servlet container (Tomcat, Jetty, GlassFish, etc.) and a relational database; proper configuration and JVM resources are important for production scalability.
• Persistence relies on Hibernate, so supported database backends align with Hibernate support; some tuning or specific dialect configuration may be necessary for non-standard databases.

XWiki combines a full-featured wiki editor, structured-content capabilities and an extensions ecosystem to serve knowledge management and internal application needs. The project is actively developed with releases and an open GitHub repository containing the Maven-based sources.

ChiefOnboarding is a free, open-source employee onboarding platform designed to structure and automate the onboarding journey for new hires. It supports both Slack-based and web dashboard workflows and can be self-hosted or hosted by ChiefOnboarding from Europe.

Key Features

• Automatically provision user accounts and trigger webhooks, with ready-to-use integrations and custom webhook support
• Pre-boarding: create pages to welcome new hires before they start
• To-do items: track tasks and collect forms from new hires
• Resources: access knowledge bases and complete courses to accelerate ramp-up
• Sequences: drip-feed items over time or on completion of previous items
• Badges: reward progress to motivate new hires
• Introductions: connect new hires with colleagues
• Admin to-dos: collaborate with teammates on onboarding tasks
• Multilingual: supports English, Dutch, Portuguese, German, Turkish, French, Spanish, Japanese
• Timezones: per-hire timezone to avoid late-night messages
• Slack bot and dashboard: accessible via Slack or web; both can run standalone
• Customizable: branding, color schemes, logos, email templates, and domain
• Open-source and privacy: licensed under AGPLv3; allows self-hosting or hosted by us
• Deployment options: containerized via Docker; deployment options include Docker Hub, Heroku, Render, and Elestio

Use Cases

• Design and run repeatable onboarding journeys for remote or distributed teams using blueprint-based workflows with preboarding, to-dos, resources, and badges
• Accelerate IT/HR onboarding by provisioning accounts and triggering integrations automatically
• Support multilingual, timezone-aware onboarding for global teams

Conclusion

ChiefOnboarding offers a transparent, flexible onboarding platform with Slack and dashboard access, strong integration capabilities, and an open-source model. It enables teams to design and run onboarding journeys while retaining data control and customization.

Operately is an open-source company operating system designed to connect strategy to day-to-day work. It provides opinionated workflows for goals, projects, reviews and check-ins, and includes an AI executive coach (Alfred) in early beta.

Key Features

• Structured goal management (OKRs-style targets, champions, timelines)
• Project management with milestones, task boards and ownership tracking
• Scheduled reviews, automated check-ins and reminders to keep goals active
• Team spaces, permissions and activity feeds for oversight and compliance
• Alfred: an AI executive coach that reviews plans and gives operational feedback (beta)

Use Cases

• Running company-wide OKR and goal programs with linked projects and milestones
• Coordinating cross-functional projects with recurring check-ins and ownership
• Establishing repeatable operational processes and handbooks for small teams

Limitations and Considerations

• The AI coach (Alfred) is explicitly described as early beta; features, coverage and availability may be limited and subject to change.

Operately is focused on providing an opinionated, workflow-first alternative to flexible note tools: it ties goals, projects and reviews together so teams make consistent progress without reinventing processes. For teams wanting an open, self-hostable company OS with built-in operational workflows and an evolving AI assistant, Operately is positioned as a practical choice.

MediaWiki is an open source wiki platform for creating and maintaining collaborative websites where content is edited in the browser and tracked over time. It powers Wikipedia and is widely used for documentation portals, internal knowledge bases, and public community wikis.

Key Features

• Browser-based editing with full page history, diffs, and rollback
• Wikitext markup with templates, categories, and transclusion for structured content
• Built-in user accounts, permissions, and moderation workflows
• Internationalization support for multilingual sites and content
• Extensible architecture with a large ecosystem of extensions and skins
• Search integration and site navigation features suited to large knowledge bases

Use Cases

• Company or team knowledge base with change tracking and permissions
• Public documentation site with community contributions and discussion
• Community-managed encyclopedia or fan wiki with scalable organization

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires ongoing maintenance (updates, extension compatibility, caching) for large installs
• Advanced customization often depends on extensions and familiarity with wikitext/templates

MediaWiki is a mature, highly extensible wiki engine designed for collaborative authoring at scale. It is a strong choice when you need robust revision control, structured wiki content, and a proven ecosystem for long-term knowledge management.

SeedDMS is a PHP-based document management system for centrally storing, organizing, and sharing documents in a multi-user environment. It focuses on controlled document storage with metadata, permissions, and long-term versioned retention via an easy-to-use web interface.

Key Features

• Folder-based hierarchical document organization with metadata
• Document versioning and controlled access permissions
• Workflow support for requests such as review/approval
• Notifications for document and folder events and workflow actions
• Full-text search via content extraction and indexing (with external converters)
• Web-based UI plus integrations such as WebDAV and LDAP authentication
• REST API for programmatic access and automation
• OAI-PMH metadata provider capabilities (e.g., Dublin Core minimum)

Use Cases

• Company or team document repository with permissions and audit-friendly version history
• Digitized paperwork archive (scans, PDFs) with searchable content
• Structured knowledge repository for procedures, manuals, and long-term records

Limitations and Considerations

• Does not provide in-app document editing; it primarily stores and versions files
• Previews, text extraction, and PDF conversion depend on external tools and formats supported by those converters
• Some releases introduce installation/layout changes that may require careful update planning

SeedDMS is well-suited for organizations that need a straightforward, self-managed DMS with strong organization, versioning, and access control. With optional integrations and conversion/indexing support, it can scale from personal archives to multi-user document repositories.