RunOnVPS

Comparison · self-hosted team wikis and documentation

Outline vs BookStack

Outline: Fast collaborative team knowledge base and wiki.
BookStack: Self-hosted platform for organising and storing documentation and wiki content.

Compare requirementsSize them together

Requirements

Side-by-side VPS specs

Every value is taken from each app’s RunOnVPS dataset entry. Badges show whether a figure is an official project figure or a RunOnVPS estimate — never compare the two as if they were equal.

Outline vs BookStack hardware requirements and facts
ResourceOutlineBookStack
Minimum RAM2 GB Estimated1 GB Estimated
Minimum CPU2 vCPU Estimated1 vCPU Estimated
Minimum disk10 GB Estimated10 GB Estimated
Recommended RAM4 GB Estimated2 GB Estimated
Recommended CPU2 vCPU Estimated2 vCPU Estimated
Recommended diskNot stated Not statedNot stated Not stated
Suggested VPS tier (our sizing)4 GB RAM tier2 GB RAM tier
GPUNot requiredNot required
Docker supportYesYes (community)
LicenceBSL-1.1MIT
GitHub stars~39000~19100
Commercial alternativeNotion / ConfluenceConfluence / Notion
CategoryProductivity / FinanceProductivity / Finance

Disk figures describe the application footprint recorded in the dataset. Personal media, documents, backups and other user data can require substantially more storage. Full source notes: Outline requirements · BookStack requirements.

Who should pick it

Outline

Pick Outline if you want the fast collaborative knowledge base and can run its supporting stack — deployment also requires PostgreSQL, Redis, storage and an external OIDC/OAuth auth provider. Its licence is BSL-1.1 (source-available), and every hardware figure on its page is an estimate.

See the full Outline requirements →

Who should pick it

BookStack

Pick BookStack if you want the simpler documentation platform under an MIT licence with the lighter estimated sizing. Its Docker setups are community-maintained (LinuxServer.io) — there is no first-party image.

See the full BookStack requirements →

Verdict

The short version

  • BookStack is the lighter install in our dataset: estimated 1 GB minimum / 2 GB recommended (2 GB RAM tier) against Outline’s estimated 2 GB / 4 GB (4 GB RAM tier). Neither project publishes a hardware minimum, so every RAM and CPU row here rests on clearly labelled estimates.
  • The operational shapes differ: Outline’s deployment also needs PostgreSQL, Redis, storage and an external auth provider, while BookStack runs as the app plus a MySQL/MariaDB database — its official install docs require MySQL >= 8.0 or MariaDB >= 10.6, and its own site says it runs happily on a £2.50 IONOS VPS.
  • Licence differs sharply: BookStack is MIT; Outline is BSL-1.1, a source-available licence that is not OSI-approved open source.
  • Outline has about twice the GitHub audience in our dataset (~39k vs ~19k stars, checked 2026-10-24). Their catalogued alternatives overlap: Outline against Notion / Confluence, BookStack against Confluence / Notion.

Neither verdict nor table scores the apps against each other — the right pick depends on the job, the licence you can accept, and how much of the spec is published rather than estimated. If you plan to run either alongside other apps, add it to a multi-app VPS estimate →