head to head · open source
BookStack vs openagent
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars, 2,422 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. openagent has 5,628 stars, 657 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. BookStack leads on adoption by 238% (19,050 vs 5,628 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 | ★ 5.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 657 |
| 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 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 openagent
OpenAgent is an open source, self hostable personal AI assistant written in Go under the Apache 2.0 licence, combining large language models, a retrieval augmented knowledge base, and autonomous agent loops for individuals and teams who want their own assistant running on their own machine.
read the full openagent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or openagent more popular?
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars and openagent has 5,628. 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 (19,050 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose openagent if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.