head to head · open source
wiki vs BookStack
wiki has 29,128 GitHub stars, 3,335 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BookStack has 19,122 stars, 2,433 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wiki leads on adoption by 52% (29,128 vs 19,122 stars). wiki is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; BookStack is written in PHP under MIT. wiki has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, BookStack 13%. 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.
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Side by side
| wiki | BookStack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 19K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick wiki if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick BookStack if
- You want the BookStack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and BookStack fits your workflow better
About wiki
A modern, lightweight and powerful wiki app built on NodeJS Official Website Documentation Requirements Installation Demo Changelog Feature Requests Chat with us on Discord Translations (We need your help!) Special Thanks Contribute Follow our Twitter feed to learn about upcoming updates and new releases! Donate Wiki.js is an open source project that has been made possible due to the generous contributions by community backers. If you are interested in supporting this project, please consider becoming a sponsor, becoming a patron, donating to our OpenCollective, via Paypal or via Ethereum (
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is wiki or BookStack more popular?
wiki has 29,128 GitHub stars and BookStack has 19,122. wiki has the larger community by that measure.
Are wiki and BookStack free?
Both are open source. wiki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and BookStack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wiki and BookStack?
wiki is written in TypeScript and BookStack in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, wiki or BookStack?
Choose wiki if you want the larger community (29,128 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose BookStack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.