BookStack vs Joplin
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare BookStack with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Docusaurus Memos Mark Text SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Focalboard Notable MkDocs Docmost Obsidian Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Answer Notesnook Gollum Zettlr Quartz VNote MarkText Workspace Self-hosted LiveSync Leantime Blinko Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor Read the Docs nb Notes Dendron MediaWiki DokuWiki MDwiki Raneto Documize Community Django Wiki ZenTao Otter Wiki XWiki LeafWiki Daux.io Realms Wiki
Compare Joplin with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Plane SiYuan Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian Linkwarden Foam Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr VNote Wallabag Planka Self-hosted LiveSync Shiori Leantime Linkding Blinko git-bug Kanboard Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Floccus Dillinger Kaneo Buku Athens Research org-roam Taskwarrior Markor Sync Livebook QOwnNotes SilverBullet TagSpaces Papra DokuWiki Mindforger Web CherryTree Shaarli Pinry Archivy Flatnotes Dnote Trilium Notes Next NoteDiscovery MindForger WizNote BatNoter Zim Notea AppFlowy Cloud Jotty Atomic Server Knowledge RocketNotes QuillPad Beavers Notes Outline Desktop Writing Many Notes Notabase Notesnook Sync Server mdSilo Note Mark Turtl RedNotebook Tangent Notes DailyTxT TeamMapper Standard Notes OutWiker WiseMapping Tiddloid MyTetra WikidPad Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature BookStack Joplin Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT AGPL-3.0 Language PHP TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Easy Min. RAM 512 MB 256 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal docker, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 18,974 ★ 55,856 First released 2017 2017 Replaces Confluence, Notion Evernote, OneNote
Why pick each one
Choose BookStack if… Very easy to learn Clean organized structure Good permissions BookStack details Choose Joplin if… Strong privacy with E2EE Flexible sync options Active development Joplin details
Frequently asked questions Is BookStack or Joplin better? Neither is universally better. Joplin has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are BookStack and Joplin free and open-source? Yes. BookStack is licensed under MIT and Joplin under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BookStack and Joplin with Docker? BookStack: yes. Joplin: yes.