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Documentation · head to head

BookStack vs Convoy

BookStack logo

BookStack

Documentation

Self-hosted documentation wiki with a fixed shelf, book, chapter and page structure

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Convoy logo

Convoy

APIs

Open source webhooks gateway you self-host, handling both sending and receiving

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: BookStack there is no vendor-hosted option at all, so you own the server, TLS certificates, database backups and upgrades, or you pay a third-party host that has no support relationship with the project and no ability to fix a bug.; Convoy the default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.
  • They diverge on capability: BookStack covers Shelves, books, chapters, pages, Convoy covers Inbound and outbound.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BookStack and Convoy actually diverge.

Attributes where BookStack and Convoy differ
AttributeBookStackConvoy
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer month, flat rate regardless of volume
PlatformsWeb, Self-hosted, DockerLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud
CategoryDocumentationAPIs

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in BookStack

  • Shelves, books, chapters, pages
  • Dual editors
  • Granular permissions
  • Full text search
  • Page revisions
  • REST API
  • External authentication
  • Export

Only in Convoy

  • Inbound and outbound
  • Broker-driven ingestion
  • Payload transformation
  • Portal links
  • Circuit breaking
  • Retry policies
  • OpenTelemetry export
  • Role-based access control

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

BookStack

  • Running an internal knowledge base on infrastructure inside a network that cannot reach external SaaSnot Convoy
  • Documenting procedures and runbooks where a fixed structure prevents the tree sprawl a free-form wiki producesnot Convoy
  • Replacing a Confluence licence for a team that needs pages, permissions and search but none of the surrounding suitenot Convoy
  • Publishing customer-facing manuals from the same instance as internal documentation using per-book permissionsnot Convoy

Convoy

  • A fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party SaaS for compliance reasonsnot BookStack
  • A high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licencenot BookStack
  • A team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gatewaynot BookStack
  • An engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing Kafka or SQS topicnot BookStack

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

BookStack

  • There is no vendor-hosted option at all, so you own the server, TLS certificates, database backups and upgrades, or you pay a third-party host that has no support relationship with the project and no ability to fix a bug.
  • The shelf, book, chapter, page hierarchy is fixed at four levels and cannot be reshaped, so migrating a deeply nested Confluence or MediaWiki space means flattening content by hand and losing the original structure.
  • It requires PHP and MySQL or MariaDB, which is a stack many engineering teams no longer run, so adopting it usually means introducing a database and runtime nobody else in the organisation maintains.
  • Development is concentrated on a single maintainer, which makes the bus factor a legitimate procurement question for anything the organisation intends to depend on for a decade.
  • Content lives in the database rather than in files under version control, so there is no docs-as-code workflow, no review by pull request and no branch per release.
  • Export is per page, chapter or book, so moving a large instance to another platform means writing a script against the REST API rather than copying a directory of Markdown.

Convoy

  • The default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.
  • Frain Technologies is a small startup, and putting customer-facing delivery infrastructure on it means accepting real vendor continuity risk on a component that is hard to swap out quickly.
  • The premium tier at a flat 999 US dollars a month is poor value below substantial volume, while the community edition omits the portal, transformations and RBAC that most production deployments end up wanting.
  • The hosted cloud trial is capped at one project and 100 events a day, which is too small to properly evaluate the service before committing.
  • Documentation and the third-party ecosystem are thinner than the established webhook services, so unusual configurations often mean reading the Go source.

Pricing, plan by plan

BookStack

Free
  • BookStackFree
    • MIT licence with no paid edition
    • All features included, no seat limits
    • Self-hosted on your own infrastructure

Convoy

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • Self-hosted open source gateway
    • Inbound and outbound webhooks
    • Automatic retries and message broker support
  • Premium$999/month
    • Flat rate irrespective of message volume
    • Portal links and payload transformation
    • RBAC, circuit breaking and white labelling
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • SAML SSO
    • Dedicated support with SLA
    • On-premises deployment assistance
  • Cloud$undefined/month
    • Hosted by Convoy
    • 14 day trial limited to one project and 100 events a day
    • Usage-based tiers above the trial

Which should you pick?

Choose BookStack if

  • You need shelves, books, chapters, pages.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Self-hosted, Docker.
  • You also want dual editors.
BookStack review

Choose Convoy if

  • You need inbound and outbound.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
  • You also want broker-driven ingestion.
Convoy review

Questions people ask

Is BookStack or Convoy better?
Neither clearly leads. BookStack starts at Free and Convoy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, BookStack or Convoy?
BookStack starts at Free and Convoy at Free.
Does BookStack or Convoy run on more platforms?
BookStack runs on Web, Self-hosted, Docker. Convoy runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
Can I use BookStack for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is BookStack best used for?
BookStack is most often used for running an internal knowledge base on infrastructure inside a network that cannot reach external saas, documenting procedures and runbooks where a fixed structure prevents the tree sprawl a free-form wiki produces, replacing a confluence licence for a team that needs pages, permissions and search but none of the surrounding suite, publishing customer-facing manuals from the same instance as internal documentation using per-book permissions. Of those, running an internal knowledge base on infrastructure inside a network that cannot reach external saas and documenting procedures and runbooks where a fixed structure prevents the tree sprawl a free-form wiki produces are not what Convoy is typically brought in for.
What can BookStack do that Convoy cannot?
BookStack covers Shelves, books, chapters, pages, Dual editors, Granular permissions, Full text search. Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Broker-driven ingestion, Payload transformation, Portal links.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

BookStack: Is there a paid or hosted version?

No. BookStack is MIT-licensed with no commercial edition and no official hosted service. Third-party hosts exist but are unaffiliated with the project.

Convoy: Is Convoy really open source?

Yes, the community edition is open source and self-hostable, covering both inbound and outbound webhooks with retries.

BookStack: Can I nest pages more deeply?

No. Four levels is the design, not a limitation waiting to be fixed, and content that needs deeper nesting has to be restructured.

Convoy: What does premium cost?

A flat 999 US dollars a month, self-hosted, regardless of message volume.

BookStack: Does it support single sign-on?

Yes, through LDAP, SAML2 or OpenID Connect, with group to role mapping, and none of it is gated behind a paid tier because there is no paid tier.

Convoy: Does it receive webhooks as well as send them?

Yes, inbound ingestion with verification and deduplication is a first-class feature, unlike most webhook services.

BookStack: How hard is it to migrate content in?

Straightforward for flat content through the REST API, awkward for deeply nested wikis, because the structure has to be collapsed to fit.

Convoy: Do I have to self-host?

No, there is a hosted cloud, but the trial is capped at 100 events a day and self-hosting is the primary model.

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