Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Wikipedia VS BookStack

Compare Wikipedia VS BookStack and see what are their differences

Wikipedia logo Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

BookStack logo BookStack

An open source knowledge management application that's focused on ease of use.
  • Wikipedia Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-24
  • BookStack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-31

Wikipedia features and specs

  • Comprehensive Coverage
    Wikipedia provides information on an enormous range of topics, often in great detail. This makes it an invaluable resource for quick fact-checking, general research, and gaining a surface-level understanding of a subject.
  • Free Access
    Wikipedia is free to use for anyone with internet access, reducing barriers to information and supporting educational equality.
  • Collaborative Editing
    Articles on Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, allowing for a collaborative and dynamic creation and updating process. This can lead to quick corrections and diverse perspectives.
  • Citations and Sources
    Many articles on Wikipedia include citations and references to external sources, which can be useful for further research and verification of the information provided.
  • Multilingual
    Wikipedia is available in numerous languages, which helps make information accessible to a global audience.

Possible disadvantages of Wikipedia

  • Potential for Vandalism
    Because Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, there's a potential for vandalism or the introduction of incorrect information, which can affect the reliability of some articles.
  • Citation Quality
    The quality and reliability of cited sources in Wikipedia articles can vary, and some articles may cite unreliable or biased sources.
  • Subjectivity and Bias
    Despite efforts to maintain neutrality, some articles may contain subjective viewpoints or bias, reflecting the opinions of their contributors.
  • Incomplete Information
    Not all topics are covered equally well on Wikipedia. Lesser-known or more recent topics may have sparse or poorly developed entries.
  • Misleading Editing Practices
    There can be instances where experienced editors dominate the editing process, potentially leading to gatekeeping and exclusion of alternative perspectives or newer editors.

BookStack features and specs

  • Open Source
    BookStack is an open-source platform, meaning it is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and contribute to. This ensures a large community support and continuous updates.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The software has a clean and intuitive interface that makes it easy for users of all skill levels to create and manage documentation.
  • Integrated WYSIWYG Editor
    The application includes a built-in 'What You See Is What You Get' editor, making it simple to format text and add multimedia without HTML knowledge.
  • Permission Management
    BookStack offers granular permission settings, which allow administrators to control access on a per-page, book, or shelf level.
  • Customizable
    With open-source software, the level of customization available is high, allowing organizations to tailor the software to their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of BookStack

  • Hosting and Maintenance
    As an open-source product, users need to handle their own hosting and maintenance, which could be challenging for those without technical expertise.
  • Limited Integrations
    BookStack does not natively integrate with as many third-party applications compared to some proprietary knowledge management systems.
  • Learning Curve
    While the interface is user-friendly, setting up and customizing the platform may require a learning curve, especially for those unfamiliar with open-source software.
  • Performance
    In some instances, performance issues have been reported, especially when handling a large volume of data or concurrent users.
  • Feature Limitations
    Some advanced features found in proprietary knowledge management systems, such as advanced analytics or AI-driven search, may be lacking.

Wikipedia videos

Wikipedia The Game | Beer and Board Games

More videos:

  • Review - Using Wikipedia on an iPod Mini
  • Review - I Don't Use or Trust Wikipedia Anymore.

BookStack videos

BookStack Review- 7 Brief Lessons in Physics

More videos:

  • Review - Bookstack, a free, open source, self hosted documentation wiki with style.
  • Review - Bookstack - Meine favorisierte Wiki Software

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Wikipedia and BookStack)
Content Collaboration
82 82%
18% 18
WiKis
0 0%
100% 100
Note Taking
77 77%
23% 23
Knowledge Base
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Wikipedia and BookStack. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Wikipedia and BookStack

Wikipedia Reviews

17 open source wiki engine/software
MediaWiki is a free and open source server based wiki engine written in PHP developed by Wikipedia. MediaWiki is an extremely powerful, scalable software and a feature-rich wiki implementation, that uses PHP to process and display data stored in its MySQL database. Pages use MediaWiki’s wiki-text format, so that users without knowledge of XHTML or CSS can edit pages easily...

BookStack Reviews

Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
Bookstack is a simple, self-hosted platform for organizing and storing information, focusing on creating a knowledge base. It is similar to Gitbook in its functionality but differs in how it is organized and presented. It allows you to collect information in a hierarchical structure, similar to a book, with chapters and sections. This can make it easier to navigate large...
Source: www.archbee.com
The 10 Best Self-hosted Wiki Software for Linux System
Another powerful self-hosted Wiki software for Linux is BookStack. One of the most attractive features of BookStack is its cross-book sorting capability. It can sort all books based on tags such as title, author name, publisher, and genre. Users can even use it to search for particular titles based on a keyword. Other features of this open-source software include image...
Best 11 Open-source Free Wiki Engines for teams and enterprise in 2022
The BookStack App is not just a Wiki Engine, but it works the same. It aims for creating books by easing collaboration among writers and editors, we run it for us and some clients as a Wiki Engine, where they use books as projects.
Source: medevel.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Wikipedia seems to be a lot more popular than BookStack. While we know about 127 links to Wikipedia, we've tracked only 3 mentions of BookStack. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Wikipedia mentions (127)

View more

BookStack mentions (3)

  • Customize the theme a bit?
    That said, is it possible to customize the theme a bit? Specifically, how can I set the code-block background to dark-grey? Also, how can I make the horizontal line a bit taller than 1px? I saw the Customizing Visuals page on bookstackapp.com (specifically the "Changing Code Block Themes" topic) but was a little lost on exactly how to make the changes. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Looking to move internal docs from share Onenote to.. ?
    Maybe look at BookStack to see if it fits your needs. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Self hosting WordPress website
    If you’re looking for a books-styled documentation platform, look into https://bookstackapp.com. Source: over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Wikipedia and BookStack, you can also consider the following products

Miraheze - Miraheze is a wiki farm (hosts wikis) for free and with no ads, it also provides custom domains...

DokuWiki - DokuWiki is a simple to use and highly versatile Open Source wiki software that doesn't require a database.

Fandom - The entertainment site where fans come first.

TiddlyWiki - a non-linear personal web notebook

Encyclopædia Britannica - Explore the fact-checked online encyclopedia from Encyclopaedia Britannica with hundreds of thousands of objective articles, biographies, videos, and images from experts.

MediaWiki - MediaWiki is a free software wiki package written in PHP, originally for use on Wikipedia.