BookStack Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

BookStack hosting on xCloud gives your team a self-hosted wiki on a server you own, with nothing to assemble. Deploy BookStack 26.05.4 on a dedicated Cloud VPS and xCloud runs the pinned image with a MariaDB sidecar, generates the app key and database credentials, mounts persistent volumes and publishes the wiki over HTTPS on your own domain in a few minutes, ready for your first shelf.

Deploy your BookStack

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is BookStack?

Self-hosted BookStack is an open-source wiki and documentation platform for team knowledge bases, SOPs, internal docs and client handover manuals. Upstream defines it as an opinionated documentation platform with a pleasant, simple out-of-the-box experience, where only basic word-processing skills should be needed to create content. It is released under the MIT licence and is a self-hosted alternative to hosted tools such as Confluence and Notion for documentation.

On xCloud the template runs BookStack 26.05.4 from the linuxserver/bookstack image, pinned by digest, with a mariadb:12.2 sidecar for the database. The bookstack_data volume holds config, uploads, themes and logs, and bookstack_db holds the database. The site is served over HTTPS on your domain and starts with a default admin account that you must change.

From Sign-Up to a Live BookStack In Just 3 Easy Steps

Self-hosting BookStack normally means a web server, PHP, a database, an app key, a domain and a certificate before the first page. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick BookStack from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and target server — the install form has no extra fields to fill in.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the linuxserver BookStack 26.05.4 image, pinned by digest, beside a mariadb:12.2 sidecar, generate the app key and database credentials, mount the bookstack_data and bookstack_db volumes, and publish it over HTTPS.
Step 03
Change The Default Admin Login
Open your HTTPS URL and sign in with the default admin account shown in the credentials panel, then change that password at once from Settings, Users. After that, create your first shelf and book.

Everything BookStack Does, On Your Own Server

BookStack runs in full here: a documentation wiki on your own domain, with its pages, uploads and database on volumes you control.

Shelves, Books, Chapters, Pages
Organise documentation in four levels, from shelves that group books down to chapters and pages, so a large knowledge base stays easy to browse.
WYSIWYG And Markdown Editing
Write pages in a visual editor or in Markdown, so contributors with only basic word-processing skills can still add content.
Full-Text Search
Search across the content of every shelf, book, chapter and page from one box, without a separate search service to run.
Roles And Permissions
Control who can view or edit each shelf, book, chapter or page, so private team notes stay separate from public handover manuals.
MariaDB Sidecar Included
A mariadb:12.2 container runs beside the app with generated credentials and its own bookstack_db volume, so there is no database to set up.
Uploads Persist Across Restarts
Application config, uploads, themes and logs live on bookstack_data, which survives a restart along with the database volume.

Everything You Need To Run Your Team Wiki 24/7

Managed hosting for BookStack, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

BookStack 26.05.4 deployed instantly
Image pinned by digest
App key and database credentials generated
MariaDB sidecar included
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With BookStack

Build a team knowledge base
A growing company collects how-tos and internal docs into shelves and books, so new hires find answers in one searchable wiki instead of scattered documents and chat threads.
Keep standard operating procedures in one place
An operations lead writes SOPs as chapters and pages, uses roles and permissions to decide who may edit them, and keeps the wiki on a server the company controls.
Hand over documentation to clients
An agency writes client handover manuals in BookStack and shares them from its own domain, with each client's material kept in its own book on the agency's server.
Run a self-hosted wiki without a database setup
A small team that wants its own wiki deploys the app with its MariaDB sidecar already wired up, rather than configuring PHP, a web server and database users by hand.

BookStack vs Alternatives

Confluence: Choose BookStack as a Confluence alternative for documentation when you want a self-hosted wiki with a fixed shelves, books, chapters and pages structure on a server you control. This is a category comparison, not feature parity.
Notion: BookStack is a Notion alternative for teams that mainly need documentation: upstream describes an opinionated platform, not an extensible one for other purposes, with data kept on your own volumes.
Wiki.js: In a BookStack vs Wiki.js comparison, BookStack is the one with a fixed shelves, books, chapters and pages hierarchy. Wiki.js is a self-hosted peer with its own OneClick page on this site.
DokuWiki: BookStack vs DokuWiki: DokuWiki is a self-hosted wiki with its own OneClick page. BookStack stores its content in a MariaDB database, with uploads and config on a separate volume, behind a visual or Markdown editor.

Ready To Own Your Team Wiki?

BookStack on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own your documentation. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

What is BookStack used for?

Per upstream, BookStack is a platform for storing and organising information and documentation. Teams use it for knowledge bases, SOPs, internal docs and client handover manuals, written as pages grouped into chapters, books and shelves, with a visual or Markdown editor.

Is BookStack free?

Yes. BookStack is open source under the MIT licence, so the wiki software itself is free to run. xCloud's charge is the dedicated Cloud VPS plus HTTPS and deployment. Nothing in this template adds a paid BookStack tier, and your pages stay on volumes you control.

Can you self-host BookStack with Docker?

Yes, and this template is that setup prebuilt: the linuxserver/bookstack 26.05.4 image pinned by digest, a mariadb:12.2 sidecar and two named volumes, behind HTTPS on your domain. It works as BookStack Docker hosting without you writing the compose file.

Docker hosting on xCloud

How do I back up BookStack?

Back up both volumes: bookstack_data, which holds config, uploads, themes and logs, and bookstack_db, which holds the MariaDB data. For a consistent copy, dump the database and copy the data volume together, and test a restore on a separate site.

Backups in xCloud

How do I update BookStack?

Updates are deliberate. The image is pinned to release 26.05.4 and its digest, and a catalogue re-sync does not change existing installs. To move on, back up both volumes, review the upstream release, then change the tag and digest together and check login and pages.

What are the server requirements for BookStack cloud hosting?

The template manifest asks for 1024 MB of RAM, 1 CPU core and 4 GB of disk; the 6 GB Cloud VPS sold on this page leaves headroom for the app and its MariaDB sidecar. Larger libraries of uploads mainly need more disk.

How do I sign in the first time?

The template starts with a default admin account whose credentials appear in your xCloud credentials panel. There is no web installer. Sign in, then change that password immediately from Settings, Users, because the default login is the same on every new install.

What happens if I change the domain?

BookStack stores absolute URLs in its database, so keep APP_URL equal to your public domain from day one. If you change it later, update APP_URL in the Environment editor, Save and Redeploy, then run the bookstack:update-url command from the template README on the server.

Update environment variables

Can I change the database password later?

Not by editing it in the Environment editor alone. Editing DB_PASSWORD or DB_ROOT_PASSWORD there does not rotate the running MariaDB users. Change the password inside MariaDB first, then update the environment value and Save and Redeploy, so BookStack and the database keep matching.

Where does my data live?

On your own Cloud VPS. Pages and the database sit in MariaDB on bookstack_db, while uploads, themes and config sit on bookstack_data. Both are named volumes that survive a restart, and no third party holds your documentation. You remain responsible for backups.

Can I run other apps on the same server?

Yes. It is a dedicated Cloud VPS, not a locked appliance, so you can deploy other OneClick apps or your own sites beside BookStack as long as the memory, CPU and disk are there. Watch usage as you add them.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.