Collaboration & Productivity

BookStack

Self-hosted team wiki — books, chapters and pages for structured, navigable knowledge.

Official documentation

About BookStack

BookStack is an open-source, self-hosted wiki platform built on PHP/Laravel, organized around the clear hierarchy of shelves, books, chapters and pages. Unlike free-form wikis, its opinionated structure makes documentation immediately navigable — no more lost pages in a flat tree.

Deployed on a ServOrbit VPS via Docker, it keeps your team's knowledge base on your own infrastructure without per-user subscriptions. It ships with both WYSIWYG and Markdown editors, full-text search, granular role-based permissions, optional LDAP/SAML/OAuth authentication and an integrated Draw.io diagram editor — everything for a private, controlled knowledge base.

What gets installed

Ready when the VPS starts

Compatible OS
Ubuntu 24.04
Application
BookStack
Tech stack
DockerPHPMariaDB
Minimum RAM
1 GB (2 GB recommended)
Minimum CPU
1 vCPU
Default port
6875
Access
root over SSH

Key features

  • Structured hierarchy: shelves, books, chapters and pages for effortless navigation
  • Dual editor: WYSIWYG and Markdown with integrated Draw.io diagrams
  • Full-text search across the entire knowledge base
  • Granular permissions by role and by book to partition sensitive content
  • LDAP, SAML and OAuth authentication for enterprise directory integration
  • REST API for integrating with CI/CD pipelines and external tools

When to use this solution?

Team knowledge base

Centralize procedures, onboarding guides and internal policies with role-based access control. BookStack's book-based structure makes documentation immediately navigable for the whole team.

Technical documentation

Document APIs, runbooks and architecture decisions in a structured, searchable wiki that lives on your infrastructure and integrates with your Git workflow.

Project documentation

Agencies and consultancies organize client project documentation in separate books with per-book permissions, keeping each client's content isolated.

Guide

Deploy BookStack on your VPS

  1. Create the VPS

    Choose a plan with at least 1 GB RAM and 15 GB SSD. The BookStack template deploys the application and its MariaDB database in Docker containers.

  2. Attach your domain

    Add a custom domain from your client area. ServOrbit sets up the vhost and TLS certificate automatically — BookStack requires a correct URL to generate its internal links.

  3. First login

    Visit your domain and log in with the default credentials: email [email protected], password password. Change the password immediately — anyone with access to the URL could use these defaults.

  4. Build your knowledge base

    Create shelves to group books by team or topic, add books, organize chapters and start writing pages. Use the WYSIWYG editor for rich content or Markdown for code-heavy documentation.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about BookStack

← Back to Collaboration & ProductivityAll applications
BookStack is a self-hosted, open-source wiki platform built on PHP/Laravel. It organizes documentation into shelves, books, chapters and pages for easy navigation.

Embed the deploy button

Maintaining a project that uses BookStack? This button lets your readers deploy it on a VPS in one click, without reading Docker documentation.

Deploy BookStack on ServOrbit
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The button points to a VPS order with the template preselected. The image is served from servorbit.com — nothing to host on your side.

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Need help?

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