head to head · open source
docusaurus vs BookStack
docusaurus has 66,471 GitHub stars, 10,071 forks, 430 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. BookStack has 19,078 stars, 2,431 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docusaurus leads on adoption by 248% (66,471 vs 19,078 stars). docusaurus is written in TypeScript under MIT; BookStack is written in PHP under MIT. docusaurus has attracted 15% 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 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
| docusaurus | BookStack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-10-10 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick docusaurus if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the MIT 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 docusaurus
Docusaurus is an open source static site generator from Meta for maintainers who need a documentation, blog, and project website that is easy to keep up to date.
read the full docusaurus overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is docusaurus or BookStack more popular?
docusaurus has 66,471 GitHub stars and BookStack has 19,078. docusaurus has the larger community by that measure.
Are docusaurus and BookStack free?
Both are open source. docusaurus is licensed under MIT and BookStack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docusaurus and BookStack?
docusaurus 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, docusaurus or BookStack?
Choose docusaurus if you want the larger community (66,471 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose BookStack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.