head to head · open source
BookStack vs nb
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars, 2,422 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. nb has 8,405 stars, 254 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. BookStack leads on adoption by 127% (19,050 vs 8,405 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; nb is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, nb 3%. BookStack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| BookStack | nb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 8.4K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-08-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 254 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick BookStack if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick nb if
- You want the nb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and nb fits your workflow better
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 →
About nb
nb is a command line and local web note taking, bookmarking, archiving, and knowledge base application distributed as a single portable shell script, aimed at people who want plain text notes, Git backed history, and local search without a hosted service.
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or nb more popular?
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars and nb has 8,405. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and nb free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and nb under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and nb?
BookStack is written in PHP and nb in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, BookStack or nb?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,050 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nb if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.