head to head · open source
storybook vs BookStack
storybook has 91,428 GitHub stars, 10,495 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BookStack has 19,122 stars, 2,433 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. storybook leads on adoption by 378% (91,428 vs 19,122 stars). storybook is written in TypeScript under MIT; BookStack is written in PHP under MIT. storybook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, BookStack 13%. storybook 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
| storybook | BookStack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick storybook if
- You weight community size — 91K 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 storybook
Build bulletproof UI components faster Storybook is a frontend workshop for building UI components and pages in isolation. Thousands of teams use it for UI development, testing, and documentation. Find out more at storybook.js.org ! View README for: Table of contents 🚀 Getting Started 📒 Projects 🛠 Supported Frameworks & Examples 🔗Addons 🏅 Badges & Presentation materials 👥 Community 👏 Contributing 👨💻 Development scripts 💸 Sponsors 💵 Backers :memo: License Getting Started Visit Storybook's website to learn more about Storybook and to get started. Documentation Documentation can be found on Storybook's…
read the full storybook overview →
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 storybook or BookStack more popular?
storybook has 91,428 GitHub stars and BookStack has 19,122. storybook has the larger community by that measure.
Are storybook and BookStack free?
Both are open source. storybook is licensed under MIT and BookStack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between storybook and BookStack?
storybook 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, storybook or BookStack?
Choose storybook if you want the larger community (91,428 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose BookStack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.