head to head · open source
BookStack vs NoteDiscovery
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars, 2,422 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. NoteDiscovery has 2,807 stars, 233 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BookStack leads on adoption by 579% (19,050 vs 2,807 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript under MIT. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, NoteDiscovery 8%. 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 | NoteDiscovery | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 233 |
| 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 NoteDiscovery if
- You want the NoteDiscovery feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and NoteDiscovery 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 NoteDiscovery
NoteDiscovery is a lightweight, self hosted note taking and knowledge base application, written in JavaScript and released under the MIT licence, that stores every note as a plain markdown file in folders on your own server and is aimed at privacy conscious individuals, developers, knowledge workers, and teams who want to own their data.
read the full NoteDiscovery overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or NoteDiscovery more popular?
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars and NoteDiscovery has 2,807. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and NoteDiscovery free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and NoteDiscovery under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and NoteDiscovery?
BookStack is written in PHP and NoteDiscovery 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 NoteDiscovery?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,050 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose NoteDiscovery if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.