head to head · open source
BookStack vs Docs
BookStack has 19,122 GitHub stars, 2,433 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docs has 16,963 stars, 688 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BookStack leads on adoption by 13% (19,122 vs 16,963 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; Docs is written in TypeScript under MIT. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Docs 4%. BookStack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (documentation), 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
| BookStack | Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 688 |
| 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 Docs if
- You want the Docs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Docs 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 Docs
Chat on Matrix • Documentation • Try Docs • Contact us La Suite Docs: Collaborative Text Editing Docs, where your notes can become knowledge through live collaboration. Docs is an open source collaborative editor that helps teams write, organize, and share knowledge together in real time. What is Docs? Docs is an open source alternative to tools like Notion or Google Docs, focused on: Real time collaboration Clean, structured documents Knowledge organization Data ownership & self hosting Built for public organizations, companies, and open communities. Why use Docs? Writing Rich text & Markdown editing Slash…
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or Docs more popular?
BookStack has 19,122 GitHub stars and Docs has 16,963. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and Docs free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and Docs under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and Docs?
BookStack is written in PHP and Docs 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 Docs?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,122 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Docs if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.