BookStack
Simple, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform for organising and storing information.
- Wikis & Knowledge Bases
- PHP
- MIT
- Docker
- Actively maintained
GitHub stats
- GitHub stars
- 19,075
- Forks
- 2,428
- Open issues
- 0
- Commits, last 12 months
- 435
- Last commit
- Oct 6, 2026
- Latest release
- v26.09.1Sep 29, 2026
- Created
- Aug 29, 2015
Data from the GitHub API, refreshed daily.
About BookStack
Simple, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform for organising and storing information. BookStack is open source under the MIT license and written mainly in PHP, so you can read the code, run it on your own hardware and keep full control of your data.
The project has 19,075 stars and 2,428 forks on GitHub, with 435 commits over the last year. It ships a Docker image, which makes it a good fit for a small VPS or a home server running Docker Compose.
Topics
- bookstack
- laravel
- php
- wiki
- selfhosted
- documentation
Open-source alternative to
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What is BookStack?
BookStack is a free, open-source app you can host on your own server, listed in our Wikis & Knowledge Bases category. Simple, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform for organising and storing information. The source code lives at github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack, where it has 19,075 stars.
Is BookStack free and open source?
Yes. BookStack is open-source software released under the MIT license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.
Can I run BookStack with Docker?
Yes. BookStack provides a Docker image, so you can run it on any Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose installed. The project README lists the image name and the environment variables to set.
What are the best alternatives to BookStack?
Popular open-source alternatives to BookStack include SiYuan, Outline and Wiki.js. BookStack itself is a self-hosted alternative to Confluence.
Is BookStack actively maintained?
The most recent commit to BookStack was on Oct 6, 2026 with 435 commits in the past twelve months. The latest release is v26.09.1, published Sep 29, 2026. Check the open issues on GitHub to gauge how quickly maintainers respond.