head to head · open source
BookStack vs Storyden
BookStack has 19,122 GitHub stars, 2,433 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Storyden has 346 stars, 40 forks, 84 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. BookStack leads on adoption by 5,427% (19,122 vs 346 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; Storyden is written in Go under MPL-2.0. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Storyden 12%. 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 | Storyden | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 346 |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 40 |
| 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 Storyden if
- You want the Storyden feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Storyden 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 Storyden
a modern community platform Documentation Friends With a fresh new take on traditional bulletin board web forum software, Storyden is a modern, secure and extensible platform for building communities. Storyden Storyden is the platform for managing community and content, wherever they call home. Run a forum, a blog, post news, curate cool sites, build a directory, a knowledgebase and more. Learn more here. If you'd like to help with some research, please fill in this tiny (anonymous) form: You can try it right now! Run the image and open in your browser: Releases and versions Storyden releases tagged versions…
read the full Storyden overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or Storyden more popular?
BookStack has 19,122 GitHub stars and Storyden has 346. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and Storyden free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and Storyden under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and Storyden?
BookStack is written in PHP and Storyden in Go. 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 Storyden?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,122 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Storyden if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.