Self-host BookStack
updated Jul 2026deployed & timed by usprices checked · Aug 2026Install verified on Ubuntu 26.04 · Jul 2026 · how we test
A simple, genuinely open-source documentation wiki organized into shelves, books, and pages — easy to run and easy for non-technical teams to use.
Notion / yr$120
Self-hosted / yr~$55
You keep$65/yr
Pocket the difference — spin it up on a cheap VPS in minutes.Start free on Kamatera → (opens in new tab)
Key facts
CategoryWiki & docs
LicenseMIT
StackPHP, Laravel
Min RAM512 MB
Dockeryes
Difficulty
What you need
- Any VPS with at least 512 MB of RAM
- A domain you control — most self-hosted setups need HTTPS in front of them
- Under an hour if you've used Docker before
Install with Docker Compose
Save this as compose.yml and run docker compose up -d:
# BookStack + MariaDB (linuxserver image)
services:
bookstack:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest
ports: ["6875:80"]
environment: { APP_URL: http://SERVER_IP:6875, DB_HOST: db, DB_USER: bookstack, DB_PASS: secret, DB_DATABASE: bookstack }
db: { image: lscr.io/linuxserver/mariadb:latest }
# docker compose up -d → http://SERVER_IP:6875An alternative to
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