the catalog · 🧠 Notes & knowledge
BookStack
★ 16kSimple, self-hosted wiki organized into books, chapters, and pages
BookStack does the job of Confluence, self-hosted. It is MIT-licensed, so you can do essentially what you like with it, and it installs in about one command. Confluence bills $6-12/user for it. 16k stars on GitHub.
Open-source replacement for Confluence.
- Licence
- MIT
- Self-hosting
- Easy
- The paid one costs
- $6-12/user
- GitHub stars
- 16k
Is it actually a replacement?
We have written a verdict on what it replaces — what you lose, and why people still pay:
How BookStack runs
Where it runs
BookStack runs on your server.
Installing it
Fresh Ubuntu install script or manual PHP/MySQL setup.
Where your data lives
Pages, users, permissions, and settings in MySQL/MariaDB; uploaded images and files in the server filesystem or configured object storage.
What setup takes
The official script expects a fresh Ubuntu host; manual installs require PHP extensions, a database, writable storage, mail, and TLS.
The catch compared with Nuclino
Its shelf/book/chapter hierarchy is much more rigid than Nuclino's free-form collections, linked graph, canvas and board views.
BookStack questions
Is BookStack open source?
Yes — it is released under MIT.
Can BookStack replace Confluence?
Our verdict on Confluence is YES. Outline (40k stars), Wiki.js (29k stars), Focalboard (26k stars) are mature open-source replacements for Confluence — self-host with docker and stop paying.
Can I self-host BookStack?
Yes — we rate it easy to self-host, and it runs on your server. Fresh Ubuntu install script or manual PHP/MySQL setup.