BookStack

BookStack Products

BookStack is a straightforward, open-source platform designed for organising and storing information. It offers a self-hosted solution that is both simple and free to use, making it accessible for a wide range of users who need to manage their knowledge base efficiently.

Key Features

BookStack prioritises simplicity with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG interface. The platform organises content into three straightforward groups; books, chapters, and pages. This structure makes it easy to navigate and manage information effectively.

The platform includes a robust search functionality, allowing users to search within a specific book or across all books, chapters, and pages. This feature ensures that finding the right information is quick and hassle-free. Additionally, users can link directly to any paragraph, keeping documentation well-connected and easily accessible.

BookStack offers various configuration options, enabling users to customise the platform to suit their specific needs. Users can change the name, logo, and registration options. They can also set the system to be publicly viewable or restrict access as needed.

Technical Specifications

Built using PHP on top of the Laravel framework, BookStack uses MySQL to store data. It is designed to be lightweight and can run efficiently on a basic Digital Ocean VPS. The platform includes a built-in diagrams.net drawing capability, allowing users to create diagrams directly within their documentation.

BookStack supports multiple languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, and Russian. This multilingual support makes it accessible to a global audience. For those who prefer writing in Markdown, BookStack provides a Markdown editor with a live preview feature.

Security and Customisation

BookStack offers various login options, including email/password login and social providers such as GitHub, Google, Slack, and AzureAD. For enterprise environments, Okta, SAML2, and LDAP options are available. The platform also includes Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), which can be enforced at a per-role level. MFA options include TOTP (Google/Microsoft Authenticator, Authy) and static backup codes.

The user interface of BookStack is available in both light and dark themes, catering to different user preferences. This customisation extends to the user level, ensuring that each individual can tailor the platform to their liking.

About BookStack

BookStack is developed by Dan Brown with contributions from the community. The platform is fully free and open-source under the MIT license. The source code is available on GitHub for anyone interested in contributing or setting up their own instance of BookStack.

Community and Support

BookStack benefits from a strong community of contributors who help enhance its features and capabilities. The platform supports multiple languages thanks to these community efforts. Users can try out BookStack through a demo version that resets every half hour.

Technical Details

The website uses a self-hosted instance of Plausible for analytics and a customised version of webidx for search capabilities. BookStack is a registered trademark of Daniel Brown.