head to head · open source
BookStack vs openagent
BookStack has 19,123 GitHub stars, 2,435 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openagent has 5,735 stars, 673 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. BookStack leads on adoption by 233% (19,123 vs 5,735 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; openagent is written in Go under Apache-2.0. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, openagent 12%. 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 | openagent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 673 |
| 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 openagent if
- You want the openagent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and openagent 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 openagent
Next generation personal AI assistant powered by LLM, RAG and agent loops — ships as a single binary, no installation needed Supporting computer use, browser use and coding agent Live Demo · Playground · Docs · Discord English 中文 What is OpenAgent? OpenAgent is an open source personal AI assistant that brings together powerful LLMs, your own knowledge base, and autonomous agent loops — all in one self hostable platform. Connect any model provider, build a RAG knowledge base from your documents, and let agents browse the web, run code, and call any MCP compatible tool on your behalf. Sponsors Thanks to APIMart…
read the full openagent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or openagent more popular?
BookStack has 19,123 GitHub stars and openagent has 5,735. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and openagent free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and openagent under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and openagent?
BookStack is written in PHP and openagent in Go. 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 openagent?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,123 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose openagent if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.