BookStack vs EmpireVault Knowledge Base
BookStack
bookstackapp.comEmpireVault Knowledge Base
empirevault.comSide by side
| Figure | BookStack | EmpireVault Knowledge Base |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | £37.50/mo | $39/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Knowledge base software | 8.9 (#8) | 7.9 (#87) |
| Publishing audience | both | public |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Organization | Content is organized into Books, Chapters and Pages. | Articles can be grouped into nested categories, and draft edits can be kept separate from the published version. |
| Product | BookStack is a simple, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform for organising and storing information. | The Knowledge Base is a public-facing article portal and a source for EmpireVault’s AI help assistant and suggested ticket replies. |
| Security | BookStack supports CSP headers to increase protection against malicious content and stores MFA secrets encrypted in the database. | The security page states that sensitive data is encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM and traffic is encrypted with TLS 1.2 or later. |
| 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. | The documentation page lists [email protected] for help. |
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.
EmpireVault Knowledge Base
EmpireVault Knowledge Base is a public article portal that also feeds EmpireVault’s in-app Help Assistant and suggested ticket replies. Customers can search published content, browse nested categories, and vote on article helpfulness without signing in. Authors work in a rich editor supporting images, embedded video, code blocks, callouts, inline links, and editable SEO descriptions and slugs. Draft changes can remain separate from the published version, and approval workflows are available. Reporting covers views, helpfulness votes, and search queries, while surfacing heavily viewed articles that remain unresolved or receive many negative votes. The Help Assistant uses knowledge-base passages to answer questions and can offer ticket creation when no answer is found. EmpireVault lists REST API access, signed webhooks, and Civo S3-compatible storage. It supports API, extension, and web platforms, public publishing, SSO, analytics, e-signatures, quote tracking, CRM integrations, and custom branding. Pricing starts at $39 a month per seat, with a 21-day trial and no free plan.