head to head · open source
devdocs vs BookStack
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. BookStack has 19,048 stars, 2,422 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 107% (39,461 vs 19,048 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; BookStack is written in PHP under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, BookStack 13%. BookStack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (documentation), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| devdocs | BookStack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 19K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick devdocs if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick BookStack if
- You want the BookStack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and BookStack fits your workflow better
About devdocs
DevDocs is an API documentation browser that combines multiple developer documentations into a single, clean and organized web UI with instant search, offline support, a mobile version, a dark theme and keyboard shortcuts, and it is aimed at developers who need to read and search API and reference documentation quickly.
read the full devdocs overview →
About BookStack
BookStack is a self hosted documentation platform written in PHP on top of the Laravel framework, released under the MIT license. It is described by its maintainers as an opinionated platform for storing and organising information and documentation, and it is distributed as an open source project whose development is now managed on Codeberg. The project has existed for roughly eleven years and carries a substantial community footprint, with more than nineteen thousand stars and over two thousand forks recorded against its repository history.
read the full BookStack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or BookStack more popular?
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars and BookStack has 19,048. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and BookStack free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and BookStack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and BookStack?
devdocs is written in Ruby and BookStack in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, devdocs or BookStack?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,461 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose BookStack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.