BookStack vs HelixNotes

Comparing two open source alternatives to Notion. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

BookStack

MIT

Open source wiki and documentation platform with a books/shelves/pages model — a simple, self-hostable alternative to Confluence and Notion.

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HelixNotes

AGPL-3.0

A fast, privacy-first local markdown note-taking app built with Tauri and SvelteKit. Your notes stay as plain .md files on your device.

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Side-by-side comparison

	BookStack	HelixNotes
License	MIT	AGPL-3.0
Self-hostable	Yes	No
GitHub Stars	267	155
Forks	33	15
Open Issues	700	57
Last Commit	Sep 21, 2026	Jul 23, 2026
First Released	Apr 27, 2026	Feb 9, 2026
Categories	Wiki Software	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools
Tags	#documentation #self hosted #laravel #php #markdown	#markdown #notes #knowledge-management #productivity #privacy

GitHub stars over time

BookStack267

HelixNotes

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