head to head · open source
BookStack vs open-knowledge
BookStack has 19,123 GitHub stars, 2,435 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. open-knowledge has 4,781 stars, 327 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. BookStack leads on adoption by 300% (19,123 vs 4,781 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; open-knowledge is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, open-knowledge 7%. 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 | open-knowledge | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 327 |
| 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 open-knowledge if
- You want the open-knowledge feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and open-knowledge fits your workflow better
About BookStack
BookStack A platform for storing and organising information and documentation. Details for BookStack can be found on the official website at Installation Instructions Documentation Demo Instance Screenshots BookStack Blog Issue List Community Discussions Support Options 📚 Project Definition BookStack is an opinionated documentation platform that provides a pleasant and simple out of the box experience. New users to an instance should find the experience intuitive and only basic word processing skills should be required to get involved in creating content on BookStack. The platform should provide advanced power…
read the full BookStack overview →
About open-knowledge
OpenKnowledge is a beautiful markdown editor with integrations with Claude, Codex, and other harnesses. For knowledge bases, LLM wikis, specs, and notes. Private, local, and free. website • desktop app • web UI + cli • 𝕏 • discord Features Highlights: Full true WYSIWYG so that editing markdown files feels like editing a Google Doc or Notion page. Desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) and web UI with file navigator, search, tabs, graph wiki link viewer, and more. Integrated side by side AI editing with Claude, Codex, OpenCode, Pi and others . Can be used with any harness/agent via MCP/CLI. Out of the box MCP…
read the full open-knowledge overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or open-knowledge more popular?
BookStack has 19,123 GitHub stars and open-knowledge has 4,781. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and open-knowledge free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and open-knowledge under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and open-knowledge?
BookStack is written in PHP and open-knowledge in TypeScript. 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 open-knowledge?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,123 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose open-knowledge if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.