head to head · open source
BookStack vs poznote
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars, 2,422 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. poznote has 852 stars, 35 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. BookStack leads on adoption by 2,136% (19,050 vs 852 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; poznote is written in JavaScript under MIT. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, poznote 4%. BookStack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (documentation, wiki), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| BookStack | poznote | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 852 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 35 |
| 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 poznote if
- You want the poznote feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and poznote 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 poznote
Poznote is a free, self hosted, open source note taking web application for individuals, homelabs, and teams who want Notion , Obsidian , Evernote , or OneNote style notes running on hardware they control.
read the full poznote overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Documentation & Knowledge Base projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Documentation & Knowledge Base field.
Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or poznote more popular?
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars and poznote has 852. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and poznote free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and poznote under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and poznote?
BookStack is written in PHP and poznote in JavaScript. 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 poznote?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,050 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose poznote if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.