The BookStack alternative with sub-pages beneath sub-pages.
BookStack is popular because it is simple. And that is exactly what grates after a year: shelf, book, chapter, page, and nothing below. If two people edit the same page, BookStack warns them but does not merge the changes. ThurWiki reads BookStack directly through its API.
What BookStack users run into. And what ThurWiki changes about it.
Voices from public forums and reviews, some of them shortened. More reasons for switching stand on the migration page.
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Four fixed levels, no sub-pages.
The fixed order of shelf, book, chapter and page constrains you as soon as content does not fit into those four levels. – in substance, from user reviews
ThurWiki: A page tree as deep as you like, re-sorted by dragging. Sub-pages beneath sub-pages, identical titles allowed. During the import every book becomes a top-level page and chapters become pages with sub-pages.
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Writing at the same time is not possible.
BookStack warns you when somebody is editing the page, but does not merge the changes. The wish for collaborative editing has been open since 2017. – from BookStack GitHub, issue 395
ThurWiki: Simultaneous editing with coloured cursors. The changes flow continuously into the same document; nobody has to wait or merge.
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Barely any connections to other systems.
Users miss connections to other tools and a plugin system. – in substance, from user reviews
ThurWiki: Mentions with @, comments on a marked passage, approvals and 41 connectors, among them bexio, Jira, Git, ticket systems, CRM, calendars and mailboxes.
How the move out of BookStack works.
- Route
- Directly through the BookStack API with an address and an access key, shelf by shelf: in the import wizard you choose a shelf and the target space. No export needed.
- Comes across
- Every book of the chosen shelf becomes a top-level page in the target space, chapters become pages with sub-pages, pages stay pages. Plus text, tables, images, attachments and links (rewritten).
- Check afterwards
- Drawings from diagrams.net come across as an image; anyone who wants to keep editing them creates them anew in ThurWiki as a draw.io drawing. You set the rights afterwards.
Pages that quietly go stale no longer exist.
The most common ailment of a wiki is not the missing page but the wrong one: an instruction that has not been right for two years, and nobody notices. A review date turns that into an appointment.
- A name, a date, a rhythm. Per page a responsible person, a date and, if you want, a repetition: every 30 days, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly.
- The notice stands on the page, not only in a mailbox. Once the date is reached, everyone who opens the page sees it – including the engineer who needs the instruction right now. A reminder only one person gets does not help the reader.
- Confirming is one click. The responsible person is reminded and confirms right in the notice. With a repetition the next date counts from today – anyone confirming three months late is not immediately due again.
- Two overviews. “My reviews due” for the individual, and in the wiki administration all the reviews due across the wiki. The responsible person is an organisational note and not a right: they get no access they do not have anyway.
And back out again: as one PDF.
A wiki you cannot get out of is a trap – you know that, moving out of BookStack right now. That is why the exit lies open.
- One document out of many pages. Tick across spaces, up to 300 pages per export; each begins in the PDF on a new sheet, in the order of the page tree. You choose how large it prints: 45 to 100 per cent, for type and content at once.
- Just as the page looks. What is printed is the real view, not a second rendering: macros, charts, draw.io drawings and tables stand in the PDF as they do in the browser.
- With your rights, not with everybody’s. A page you are not allowed to read stops the export rather than quietly going missing. An export that drops pages would be worse than one that never arrives.
- And by machine. Through the API every page as Markdown, with attachments – for an archive or for the move to the next system.
ThurWiki and BookStack side by side.
| ThurWiki | BookStack | |
|---|---|---|
| A page tree as deep as you like | yes, as deep as you like | no: shelf, book, chapter, page |
| Search inside PDF, Word and Excel attachments, tolerant of typing mistakes | attachments yes, including scans and archives; typing mistakes yes, and by meaning | attachments no, typing mistakes no |
| An editor without markup | yes, a ribbon like Word’s | yes, WYSIWYG |
| Simultaneous editing | yes | no, only a warning |
| Four-eyes approvals | yes, without an add-on | no |
| Invoices, tickets, issues and files from other systems on the page | yes, 41 connectors, from bexio, Odoo and Jira to Zabbix and Proxmox | no |
| SSO (OIDC, SAML) without a price per user | yes, included | yes |
| An AI assistant | yes, with your rights, without credits | no |
| Operation, backup and updates by the provider, data in Switzerland | yes, ThurData in Switzerland | yourself |
| Run it yourself (open source) | no, run by ThurData | yes, open source |
| Export chosen pages and whole branches as PDF | yes, chosen pages and whole branches as one PDF; every page as Markdown through the API | yes, books as PDF, HTML or Markdown |
| A review date per page with a reminder | yes, a responsible person, a date, a repetition, a notice on the page | no |
| Price | per wiki, from CHF 4.90 a month | free, you run it |
As of September 2026, based on the makers’ public statements and on user reports, without warranty. We also write down where we are not ahead.
Questions from BookStack users
We like how simple BookStack is. Does ThurWiki get more complicated?
Not for readers and writers: spaces, a page tree, a ribbon, a search field. It only gets more complex where you want it to: rights per space, approvals, connectors. None of that has to be switched on.
Do shelves, books and chapters come across cleanly?
In the import wizard you choose a shelf and the target space. Every book becomes a top-level page there, chapters become pages with sub-pages, pages stay pages. The preview shows the result before anything is written.
What do we gain over BookStack?
Sub-pages at any depth, simultaneous editing in which the changes flow together, search right into attachments, approvals, 41 connectors, an AI assistant with your rights, and operation, backup and updates done by us.
How do we stop pages going stale?
With a review date per page: a responsible person, a date and, if you want, a repetition (30 days up to yearly). Once the date is reached, a notice stands at the top of the page – visible to everyone who opens it, not only to the responsible person – and that person is notified. Confirming is one click in the notice; with a repetition the next date counts from today. Whoever administers the wiki sees all the reviews due in one place, and each person sees their own in the user menu.
How do we get back out of ThurWiki?
In the interface as PDF: you tick in the page tree what should come along – per row either the page alone or the page with all its sub-pages – across spaces, up to 300 pages in one document. What is printed is the view you see, so with macros, charts and drawings. Through the API, additionally every page as Markdown, with attachments. There is no bulk export of the whole wiki as an archive today; we would rather say so beforehand.
More alternatives pages: Confluence · MediaWiki · DokuWiki · XWiki · Wiki.js · Docmost · Outline · Notion · SharePoint
ThurWiki is a BookStack alternative for companies that have outgrown shelf, book, chapter and page: a page tree as deep as you like, simultaneous editing, search into attachments, approvals, connectors, operation in Switzerland. BookStack migration directly through the API, with a preview.
Anyone looking for a BookStack alternative with sub-pages, collaborative editing or a managed service finds the route and the comparison here.
Twenty of your BookStack pages in ThurWiki, before you decide.
We set up a demo wiki and import a slice of your collection, with a preview. You see search, macros and the editor working on your own content.