head to head · open source
BookStack vs wandao
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars, 2,422 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. wandao has 1,160 stars, 136 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BookStack leads on adoption by 1,542% (19,050 vs 1,160 stars). BookStack is written in PHP under MIT; wandao is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. BookStack has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, wandao 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 | wandao | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 136 |
| 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 wandao if
- You want the wandao feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and wandao 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 wandao
Wandao (万能导) is a multi platform knowledge base Markdown import and export tool that turns content you have permission to access into local Markdown and pushes local Markdown back into supported platforms, built for people who need to back up, migrate, or study documentation without manual copying and pasting.
read the full wandao overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is BookStack or wandao more popular?
BookStack has 19,050 GitHub stars and wandao has 1,160. BookStack has the larger community by that measure.
Are BookStack and wandao free?
Both are open source. BookStack is licensed under MIT and wandao under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between BookStack and wandao?
BookStack is written in PHP and wandao in Python. 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 wandao?
Choose BookStack if you want the larger community (19,050 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose wandao if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.