Compare
BookStack vs Confluence
Confluence is a commercial Atlassian product with extensive enterprise features; BookStack is free and self-hosted.
BookStackSelf-hosted wiki platform for organizing documentation
ConfluenceTeam wiki and documentation workspace by AtlassianWhich to pick
Pick BookStack if you want…
- Self-hosted documentation wiki
- Open-source code (BookStackApp/BookStack on GitHub, MIT license)
- Integrations with PHP, Laravel or MySQL (on BookStack's list, not Confluence's)
Pick Confluence if you want…
- AI-augmented team knowledge base
- Enterprise wiki
- Integrations with Claude, ChatGPT or Jira (on Confluence's list, not BookStack's)
Side by side
- What it is
- BookStack:BookStack is a self-hosted, open-source wiki platform for organizing and storing documentation.
- Confluence:Confluence is a team workspace for creating, sharing, and AI-enhanced documentation and knowledge.
- Best for
- BookStack:Self-hosted documentation wiki
- Confluence:AI-augmented team knowledge base
- Who it’s for
- BookStack:Teams needing an on-premise knowledge base or internal wiki.
- Confluence:Teams that need collaborative docs, wikis, and AI-assisted knowledge management.
- Pricing
- BookStack:Free
- Confluence:Free
- Open source
- BookStack:Yes, 19,072 GitHub stars
- Confluence:—
- Works with
- BookStack:PHP, Laravel, MySQL, OIDC, SAML2, LDAP, diagrams.net, Markdown
- Confluence:Claude, ChatGPT, Jira, Loom, Rovo
BookStack features
- Simple WYSIWYG editor. Edit pages with a clean visual interface and optional Markdown with live preview.
- Hierarchical organization. Structure content into Books, Chapters and Pages for easy navigation.
- Full-text search & linking. Search across all content and link directly to any paragraph.
- Built-in diagrams.net. Create and embed diagrams directly in the page editor.
- Role-based permissions & MFA. Control access with roles, permissions, and multi-factor authentication.
- Multi-language UI. Interface available in many languages including EN, FR, DE, ES, IT, JA, NL, PL, RU.
- External auth integrations. Supports OIDC, SAML2, LDAP and social logins for enterprise environments.
- Dark & light themes. Switch between UI themes per user preference.
Confluence features
- AI Drafting. Generate first drafts of pages using context from connected tools.
- AI Summaries. Turn pages and comments into concise summaries or audio briefings.
- Rovo Search. Search across all linked knowledge to get accurate answers without manual hunting.
- Content Types. Live docs, whiteboards, databases, videos, slides, and more.
- Teamwork Graph. Links tools, teams, and work so context follows the user’s flow.
- Automation. Status markers flag stale pages and keep content fresh.
BookStack vs Confluence FAQ
Is BookStack or Confluence free?+
Yes, both are free.
Is BookStack or Confluence open source?+
BookStack is open source (BookStackApp/BookStack on GitHub, MIT license). DevHunt has no public source repository on record for Confluence.
Do BookStack and Confluence integrate with the same tools?+
Their integration lists don't overlap: BookStack lists PHP, Laravel, MySQL, OIDC and 4 more; Confluence lists Claude, ChatGPT, Jira, Loom and 1 more.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.