BookStack vs Trainual
BookStack
bookstackapp.com
Trainual
trainual.comSide by side
| Figure | BookStack | Trainual |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | £37.50/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 4 |
| Spec score · HR Knowledge Base Software | 9.0 (#2) | 7.2 (#36) |
| Spec score · Knowledge Management Software | 9.0 (#2) | 7.0 (#35) |
| Publishing audience | both | Trainual describes its audience as growing teams, including business owners, operations leaders, and team managers. |
| Founded | 2015 | 2018 |
| Product | BookStack is a simple, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform for organising and storing information. | Trainual combines training, operations, and performance tools in one platform for documenting work, training teams, and managing operations. |
| Security | BookStack supports CSP headers to increase protection against malicious content and stores MFA secrets encrypted in the database. | Trainual says it is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and encrypts data in transit and at rest, with daily automated backups. |
| SSO support | Yes | Single sign-on is included in Premium and Enterprise plans, and Trainual's security page names Okta, Microsoft Entra, and Google as providers. |
| Support | Official paid support services are provided by HTTP Functions Ltd., while community support is available through discussions, Codeberg, Reddit, documentation and YouTube. | Plans list chat and email support, implementation support, and customer success; Enterprise adds priority support and quarterly account reviews. |
Plans
BookStack
- BookStack self-hostedFree
- Community SupportFree
- Professional Support Plan£450 a year
- Enterprise Support Plan£4,500 a year
Trainual
- CorePriced on request
- EnterprisePriced on request
- PremiumPriced on request
- ProPriced on request
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.
Trainual
Trainual is a cloud platform combining training, operations, and performance tools for documenting work and managing teams. Teams can create process documents, SOPs, checklists, flowcharts, videos, screen recordings, embeds, and SCORM content. Role-based onboarding and training paths support assignment tracking for completion, activity, and overdue work. Its AI assistant uses company knowledge to answer questions and help draft or improve training content, with AI and semantic search listed. Operations features include meetings, agendas, goals, scorecards, KPIs, team updates, and action tracking. Performance tools cover reviews, expectations, growth areas, feedback, and praise. Integrations include Google Drive, ADP RUN, Paycom, Justworks, UKG Ready, HiBob, Notion, Confluence, OneDrive, and Dropbox. Staff can use iOS and Android apps or a Chrome extension. Trainual states SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, encryption in transit and at rest, and daily automated backups. Plans are paid, with pricing on request and no free plan.