head to head · open source
BookStack vs open-knowledge
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars, 2,422 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. open-knowledge has 4,258 stars, 281 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BookStack leads on adoption by 347% (19,050 vs 4,258 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; open-knowledge is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, open-knowledge 7%. 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 | open-knowledge | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 281 |
| 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 open-knowledge if
- You want the open-knowledge feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and open-knowledge 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 open-knowledge
OpenKnowledge is a markdown IDE and LLM wiki tool in the Content & Publishing / Documentation & Knowledge Base category. It is written in TypeScript, licensed under GPL 3.0, and listed on GitHub with 4214 stars, 275 forks, and 38 open issues. It is an AI native editor for knowledge bases, LLM wikis, specs, and notes, and it is described as private, local, and free.
read the full open-knowledge overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or open-knowledge more popular?
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars and open-knowledge has 4,258. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and open-knowledge free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and open-knowledge under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and open-knowledge?
BookStack is written in PHP and open-knowledge 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 open-knowledge?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,050 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose open-knowledge if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.