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.
BookStack
Simple self-hosted documentation and wiki platform
VS
SiYuan
Privacy-first personal knowledge management system
| Feature | BookStack | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 96 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| 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 | ★ 19,050 | ★ 46,488 |
| First released | 2017 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Confluence, Notion | Notion, Evernote |
What are BookStack and SiYuan?
BookStack
BookStack is a self-hosted platform for organizing and storing documentation in a books, chapters, and pages structure. It targets teams that want an approachable wiki without complexity. It is deployed via Docker or a LAMP stack.
- Books, chapters and pages structure
- WYSIWYG and Markdown editors
- Roles, permissions and SSO
- Full-text search
SiYuan
SiYuan is an open-source, privacy-first personal knowledge management system that supports block-level references and bidirectional links. It can run locally or be self-hosted for access across devices.
- Block-level referencing
- Bidirectional links
- Self-hosted or local mode
- End-to-end encrypted sync
BookStack vs SiYuan: key differences
BookStack is written in PHP, while SiYuan is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — MIT for BookStack versus AGPL-3.0 for SiYuan. BookStack is the more established project (first released 2017), while SiYuan arrived in 2020. SiYuan has the considerably larger community, at 46,488 GitHub stars versus 19,050.
Why pick each one
Choose BookStack if…
- Very easy to learn
- Clean organized structure
- Good permissions
Watch out for
- Rigid structure for some
- Fewer integrations than rivals
Choose SiYuan if…
- Powerful block-based model
- Works offline and self-hosted
Watch out for
- Documentation strongest in Chinese
- Some advanced features are paid
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.