Is BookStack or Kong better?

Neither clearly leads. BookStack starts at Free and Kong at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, BookStack or Kong?

BookStack starts at Free and Kong at Free.

Does BookStack or Kong run on more platforms?

BookStack runs on Web, Self-hosted, Docker. Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes.

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 Kong is typically brought in for.

What can BookStack do that Kong cannot?

BookStack covers Shelves, books, chapters, pages, Dual editors, Granular permissions, Full text search. Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes.

Documentation · head to head

BookStack vs Kong

BookStack

Documentation

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

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Kong

APIs

Cloud-native API gateway and service connectivity platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

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.; Kong the Plus plan includes 1M API requests a month and charges $200 a month for each additional million
They diverge on capability: BookStack covers Shelves, books, chapters, pages, Kong covers API Gateway.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BookStack and Kong actually diverge.

Attributes where BookStack and Kong differ
Attribute	BookStack	Kong
Pricing model	Open source, no licence fee	subscription
Platforms	Web, Self-hosted, Docker	Linux, Docker, Kubernetes
Category	Documentation	APIs
Founded	Unknown	2010

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 Kong

API Gateway
Authentication & Authorization
Rate Limiting
Kubernetes
Consul
Eureka
PostgreSQL
Linux support

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 Kong
Documenting procedures and runbooks where a fixed structure prevents the tree sprawl a free-form wiki producesnot Kong
Replacing a Confluence licence for a team that needs pages, permissions and search but none of the surrounding suitenot Kong
Publishing customer-facing manuals from the same instance as internal documentation using per-book permissionsnot Kong

Kong

API gateway management and routingnot BookStack
API development and testingnot BookStack
Enterprise API security and governancenot 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.

Kong

The Plus plan includes 1M API requests a month and charges $200 a month for each additional million
Plus is capped at 10M requests a month, so growth past that forces an Enterprise contract
Plus limits published APIs to 20 and includes one Developer Portal, with a second at $200 a month
SSO and audit logging are Enterprise only
Enterprise pricing is custom and billed annually

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

Kong

Free

Kong Konnect Free TrialFree
- 30-day free trial
- Full enterprise functionality
- Unlimited gateways
Kong Konnect Plus$null/month
- Per gateway pricing billed monthly
- Up to 5 Serverless Gateways, 2 Hybrid, 2 Dedicated Cloud Gateways
- 1M API requests included per month
Kong Insomnia EssentialsFree
- Unlimited projects and CLI access
- Up to 3 Git Sync users
- 1,000 mock server requests per month
Kong Insomnia Pro$12/month
- Unlimited users with Git Sync access
- Unlimited organizations
- RBAC

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 Kong if

You need api gateway.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes.
You also want authentication & authorization.

Kong review

Questions people ask

Is BookStack or Kong better?: Neither clearly leads. BookStack starts at Free and Kong at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, BookStack or Kong?: BookStack starts at Free and Kong at Free.
Does BookStack or Kong run on more platforms?: BookStack runs on Web, Self-hosted, Docker. Kong runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes.
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 Kong is typically brought in for.
What can BookStack do that Kong cannot?: BookStack covers Shelves, books, chapters, pages, Dual editors, Granular permissions, Full text search. Kong covers API Gateway, Authentication & Authorization, Rate Limiting, Kubernetes.

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.

Kong: Does Kong offer a free trial?

Yes, Kong Konnect offers a 30-day free trial with full enterprise functionality, unlimited gateways, and no credit card required.

Source

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.

Kong: How much does Kong Insomnia Pro cost?

Kong Insomnia Pro is $12 per user per month with 15% savings available for annual billing.

Source

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.

Kong: What are Kong Konnect Plus API request limits?

Kong Konnect Plus includes 1M API requests per month; additional requests cost $200 per 1M (maximum 10M per month).

Source

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.

Kong: What is included in Kong Insomnia Enterprise?

Kong Insomnia Enterprise is $45 per user per month with SSO, SCIM, vault integrations, unlimited mock server requests, and Konnect integration.

Source

BookStack vs Kong

BookStack

Kong

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in BookStack

Only in Kong

What people use each for

BookStack

Kong

Where each one falls short

BookStack

Kong

Pricing, plan by plan

BookStack

Kong

Which should you pick?

Choose BookStack if

Choose Kong if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on BookStack

More on Kong

Keep looking

Other head to heads