BookStack vs SiYuan
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 Joplin 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 SiYuan with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin Plane Logseq Paperless-ngx Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Karakeep ArchiveBox Focalboard Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian Linkwarden Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Omnivore OpenProject Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr Quartz VNote Wallabag MarkText Workspace 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 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 WiseMapping MyTetra Mindwendel LibreKB Digimindmap memEx QST
Feature BookStack SiYuan Category Notes & Knowledge Base Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT AGPL-3.0 Language PHP TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal docker, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 18,974 ★ 45,670 First released 2017 2020 Replaces Confluence, Notion Notion, Evernote
Why pick each one
Choose BookStack if… Very easy to learn Clean organized structure Good permissions BookStack details Choose SiYuan if… Powerful block-based model Works offline and self-hosted SiYuan details
Frequently asked questions Is BookStack or SiYuan better? Neither is universally better. SiYuan has the larger community, while BookStack is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BookStack and SiYuan free and open-source? Yes. BookStack is licensed under MIT and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BookStack and SiYuan with Docker? BookStack: yes. SiYuan: yes.