BookStack vs Elium
BookStack
bookstackapp.com
Elium
elium.comSide by side
| Figure | BookStack | Elium |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | £37.50/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 3 |
| Spec score · Knowledge base software | 8.9 (#8) | 8.8 (#14) |
| Publishing audience | both | Elium targets global operations, customer service, IT support, AI and data, and strategy and research teams. |
| Founded | 2015 | 2008 |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| SSO support | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Official paid support services are provided by HTTP Functions Ltd., while community support is available through discussions, Codeberg, Reddit, documentation and YouTube. | Team and Corporate include email and in-app chat support, while Enterprise adds priority SLA-backed support, a dedicated team and direct phone and web-conference support. |
| Version history | Yes | Yes |
Plans
BookStack
- BookStack self-hostedFree
- Community SupportFree
- Professional Support Plan£450 a year
- Enterprise Support Plan£4,500 a year
In their own words
BookStack
BookStack is a free, open-source platform for organizing and storing information on a self-hosted instance. It organizes content into Books, Chapters and Pages, with a WYSIWYG editor and an optional Markdown editor with live preview. Search works within a book or across books, chapters and pages, and users can link directly to paragraphs. The editor includes diagrams.net drawing capability. Authentication supports OIDC, SAML2 and LDAP, as well as social-based secondary authentication options. Built-in multi-factor authentication can be enforced by role and uses TOTP and static backup codes. Content exports include contained HTML, PDF, plain text, Markdown and Portable ZIP. The project describes a growing REST API for automation and importing content. The MIT-licensed software has no cost to download and install. Setup requires PHP 8.2 or newer, MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.6 or newer, Git, Composer 2.2 or newer and a PHP-compatible web server. BookStack does not currently support shared PHP hosting. Community support is free but does not assure a response, support or resolution; paid support plans are also listed.
Elium
Elium is a knowledge platform that organizes scattered organisational know-how into a governed source for people and AI agents. Web and mobile access support rich articles, tags, permissions, alerts, and an expert directory for social knowledge sharing. Every plan includes unlimited AI search and answers with citations and no usage credits. Governance features cover ownership, validation, retirement, and expiry reminders; Corporate and Enterprise add approval workflows. Elium lists 65 integrations, including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, MCP, ChatGPT, Claude, SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, Slack, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk. GraphQL and Search APIs plus MCP connectivity support custom applications and retrieval pipelines. It offers Android, iOS, web, API, extension, and self-hosted deployment, with SSO and version history. Default hosting is in Google Cloud’s Belgium region, with sovereign French hosting through 3DS Outscale. Elium says customer content is not used to train models. Team costs €15 a month billed yearly with a 10-user minimum; Corporate costs $20 a month billed yearly with the same minimum. There is no free plan, but a free trial is available.