Docmost vs BookStack

Docmost and BookStack are both self-hosted answers to Confluence and Notion, and both rate difficulty 2/5 here. They answer from different decades. Docmost is a TypeScript/Node.js wiki on PostgreSQL + Redis with real-time collaborative editing and an AGPL-3.0 core with a paid tier built into the same codebase. BookStack is a PHP/Laravel application on MariaDB, organized into books, chapters and pages, MIT-licensed with nothing held back. You don't choose between them on editor features. You choose on whether live co-editing is worth a heavier stack and a paywall on login.

The editing model

This is the difference you will notice first.

• Docmost does real-time collaboration: several people in the same page at once, the way Notion or Google Docs works. Around it come spaces, groups, comments, page history and built-in Draw.io, Excalidraw and Mermaid diagrams.
• BookStack does not co-edit live. It uses a single-editor model with draft autosave and a warning when someone else is editing the page. Its page editor is a plain WYSIWYG, with an optional Markdown editor (with live preview) instead, and diagrams.net drawing is built into the editor.

If your team drafts documents together, Docmost is the only one of the two that fits. If pages are mostly written by one person and read by many, BookStack's model is fine and has less machinery underneath.

Licenses and where the paywall sits

BookStack is MIT, "fully free and open" in the project's own words. There is no paid edition and no gated feature list.

Docmost's core is AGPL-3.0, a genuinely open license, but the repository also carries enterprise-licensed directories, and Docmost's own edition table draws a clear line. The free Community edition includes real-time collaboration, spaces and space permissions, groups, comments, page history, diagrams, public sharing, full-text search and Notion import. Bases (databases), SSO (SAML 2.0 / OIDC / LDAP), multi-factor authentication, page-level granular permissions, AI and MCP are Business features, and audit logs, SIEM and SCIM are Enterprise-only. All of them need a license key, even when you self-host.

Login and access control

This row is where BookStack's pull is strongest.

BookStack's free build handles login in full. There is standard email and password, plus LDAP, SAML2 or OIDC, plus social login, all set in its .env. MFA is built in (TOTP apps and backup codes) and can be enforced per role, and a role-and-permission system lets you lock down content and actions.

Docmost gives you a built-in login on day one, so you don't need to run an identity provider (unlike Outline). But SSO and MFA are both on the Business side of the line, and so are page-level permissions. The free build restricts access by space and group.

A team that needs SSO or MFA for compliance pays for it with Docmost and gets it free with BookStack.

Setup and footprint

Both rate 2/5, for different reasons:

• Docmost publishes its own compose file. The docs have you curl it, set APP_URL, an APP_SECRET of at least 32 characters and the database password (which appears twice), and bring up three containers: app, PostgreSQL, Redis. Our 1 GB floor is an estimate for that trio. The project publishes no RAM minimum.
• BookStack has no official container image. Its install docs list community setups, and our snippet runs the LinuxServer.io image with MariaDB beside it. It wants PHP 8.2+ and MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+. Our 512 MB floor is also an estimate. The installation docs publish no RAM figure.

On a box that already runs other things, BookStack is the lighter guest.

Maturity

Docmost is pre-1.0. Its releases are still 0.x, and it adds features quickly. The flip side is that breaking changes between versions are possible, so read the release notes before pulling a new image. BookStack has been quietly reliable for years and ships dated releases. Its update docs still ask you to back up the database and uploads before every update and to read the version-specific notes, because releases have raised the PHP and database minimums.

Pick Docmost if…

• Real-time co-editing is how your team works and a single-editor wiki would get in the way.
• You want the Notion-style shape (spaces, in-page Draw.io, Excalidraw and Mermaid diagrams, Notion import) under an AGPL-3.0 core.
• You can do without SSO, MFA, Bases and page-level permissions, or you are prepared to buy a Business license when you need them.

Pick BookStack if…

• You want SSO (LDAP, SAML2, OIDC) and MFA for free, under a plain MIT license with no paid edition.
• Your writers are not developers, and the books/chapters/pages structure will do more for adoption than live cursors.
• You want the smaller footprint (512 MB) and a long track record over the pace of a 0.x project.

The honest trade-off

BookStack wins this comparison for most self-hosters. Everything a team needs to run a wiki properly comes in its free MIT build: enterprise login, MFA enforced per role, and a permission system. It runs on half the RAM and has years of stable releases behind it. Docmost is the better product only on its one big feature, real-time collaborative editing, which BookStack does not have. If that is the point for your team, Docmost is worth choosing, but know that login hardening sits behind its license key. If you want live co-editing and free SSO, neither app gives you both. Compare Docmost with Outline and BookStack with Outline. If the pull toward BookStack is really about Markdown and login modules, see Wiki.js vs BookStack.