Opportunities › Open-source collaborative documentation platform › Proposed app
Plainshelf
Team wiki that stays plain Markdown, so you can always take your docs and go
- Score
- 67
- confidence 60
- Evidence
- 17
- items on the page
- Rivals
- 7
- named in sources
- First version
- 60 d
- estimate
- Type
- Desktop and mobile
- PWA: on computers and phones alike
- Market since
- 2002
- Mature market · AI estimate
ScreensConcept
Desktop and mobile: Teams set up documentation structure and review at a desk, but browse and contribute pages throughout the day from any location. Sample screens on a computer and a phone, in the proposed brand. Their numbers are sample data.
Deploy runbook
Live- Editing nowAna, Tomas, Ilse
About this appAI proposal
Plainshelf is a hosted team wiki for engineering and product teams who want real-time editing without locking their docs into a format they can't leave. Every page is stored as Markdown in a folder tree, and a workspace can mirror itself to a Git repo or storage bucket you own.
It is built for small teams who find per-seat pricing costly, and for teams that want the control of self-hosting without running a server. Pricing is per workspace, not per person, so adding a colleague or contractor costs nothing extra.
The difference from open-source wikis is that nobody has to operate it. You get hosted convenience, a plain-file exit at any moment, and an assistant that answers from your pages and cites them.
- Tagline
- Write together. Keep your files.
- Voice
- PlainCalmDirect
- Why this name
- A shelf holds things you own and can lift off whenever you like. Plain points to plain-text Markdown. Two ordinary words, easy to say.
In the first version
Members say which features they would use. It tells PWAS what people want; it changes no score.
Real-time co-editing
Several people edit the same page at once with live cursors, comments and page history you can restore.
No member yet
Markdown mirror
Each workspace syncs to a Git repo or bucket you own every few minutes, so your docs always exist as plain files.
No member yet
Nested page tree
Spaces, folders and pages in a clear hierarchy, with drag to reorder and quick-jump search.
No member yet
Flat workspace pricing
One price per workspace with unlimited members, so guests and contractors don't add to the bill.
No member yet
Brand identityAI proposal
Check the name against trademark registers before using it.
Palette
#1F3D36Pine · primary#F4EFE4Paper · surface#1B2421Ink · text#E0A63AAmber · accent#6E8B74Moss · data
Typography
Aa
Plainshelf
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789
Write together. Keep your files.
Fraunces for headlines and numbers, Figtree for everything else.
PricingAI proposal
Notion's pricing page lists paid plans from €9.50 to €19.50 a month plus a free plan. Plainshelf tiers are flat per workspace; the amounts are a starting point to test against per-seat cost for small teams.
Free
Free
- 1 workspace, up to 50 pages
- Unlimited members
- Markdown export on demand
Team
$29 a month
- Unlimited pages and members
- Automatic Markdown mirror
- Cited answers
- Page history 1 year
Business
$79 a month
- Everything in Team
- SSO
- Audit log
- Space-level permissions
- Priority support
What it could be worthEstimate
What a software business making this much sells for today, from real deals. Pick a monthly revenue.
If it makes
Worth about
$190,000
Sale range $132,000 to $263,000
$120,000 a year in revenue
From 87 software businesses listed and sold on Empire Flippers in the last year, revenue vetted by the broker: they sell for about 19× their monthly revenue, most between 13× and 26×.
Measured on profit, the middle deal is 32× monthly net profit: about 2.7 years of profit.
An estimate, not an offer or financial advice. A real price depends on profit, growth, churn, how much of the work is the owner's, and the buyer.
How it would growAI proposal
How the product would reach new customers through its own use, and how the first ones would be found. A plan to test, not a result.
- Built-in loop
- Shared outputs. Teams publish selected pages as public or link-shared docs, such as runbooks, API notes or handbooks, each with a small 'Made with Plainshelf' footer that links to a free workspace.
- Do they become customers?
- Readers of published pages are often developers who could start a free workspace, but the footer may only be seen. Test how many published-page visitors sign up.
- First customers
- Engineering-led startups of 5 to 30 people that keep docs in Notion or Confluence and already store code in Git.
- Where to reach them
- Hacker News and dev forums: Post the Markdown-mirror idea and import tool; invite teams to try the free workspace.
- GitHub communities: Offer a docs-sync action and templates to engineering teams that use open-source wikis.
- Founder communities: Offer migration help to small teams who complain of per-seat wiki costs.
- First milestone
- Ten small engineering teams migrate a real wiki and five pay for the Team plan within 60 days.
Why people already pay for this
- VerifiedGitHub repository gained 21901 stars in 1162 days
- Public claimDocmost is an open-source alternative to Confluence and Notion, addressing demand for alternatives to these closed commercial platforms.
- AI inferenceThe repository has significant adoption with 21,901 stars and 1,606 forks, indicating substantial user interest in open-source documentation solutions.
- Public claimThe project supports real-time collaboration features, a core requirement teams expect in modern documentation tools.
Tech stack
Every proposal builds on the same PWA base, installable from the browser on any phone or computer. Dashed boxes are what this app adds.
- AppNext.js and TypeScript
- PWAManifest and service worker
- UITailwind CSS
- Data and authSupabase Postgres
- PaymentsStripe
- EmailResend
- HostingVercel
- This app · Real-time editingCRDT-based collaboration serverLive co-editing with cursors and offline merges needs a sync layer beyond Postgres.
- This app · Search and answersPostgres full-text plus vector search, LLM APISearch and cited answers need an index of page text and a model provider.
RisksAI inference
- CommercialOpen-source wikis such as Docmost already offer free self-hosting, so buyers may self-host rather than pay. The flat price and no-ops hosting must be worth it.
- TechnicalReal-time editing with offline merge and two-way Git sync is hard; edits made in the repo can conflict with live edits.
- AIAnswers may be wrong or reveal pages a user shouldn't see unless retrieval respects permissions and always cites sources.
- CommercialTeams deep in Confluence or Notion may find imports lossy, which blocks switching.
- PlatformPWA offline and install support varies by browser, especially on iOS, limiting the app-like experience.
Everything marked AI proposal or AI inference was written by a model from the evidence on the opportunity page. The proposed name must be checked against trademark registers before it is used.