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For BookStack

BookStack on Edge, docs people actually update

Shelves, books, chapters and pages on one small VM. Images move to S3-compatible storage, static assets cache in 988 locations, and nobody pays per seat.
Deploy a VMRead the deploy guide

Free to sign up. No egress fees on any product.

Why BookStack on Edge

Confluence-style docs without the per-user bill

A simple structure, a friendly editor and proper permissions, on a VM you control. The features teams actually use are built in.

  • Books, chapters, pages

    A three-level structure that matches how teams really organise documentation. WYSIWYG or Markdown, your call.

  • Images in Edge Storage

    Set STORAGE_TYPE=s3 and uploads go to a bucket. Serve them from the CDN by pointing STORAGE_URL at a storage-origin domain.

  • SAML, OIDC and LDAP

    Microsoft Entra, Google Workspace, Okta or Keycloak, all built in. No paid SSO tier to upgrade to.

  • Per-page permissions

    Role-based access at shelf, book, chapter and page level, for when finance and engineering share one wiki.

  • Search included

    Built-in full-text search across every book and page, backed by the same MySQL database.

  • Flat, not per-seat

    Confluence charges per user. BookStack on Edge is one small VM, whether ten or a thousand people read it.

Reference architecture

How BookStack maps to Edge

The official installer puts Apache, PHP and MySQL on one VM. Images move to a bucket and the CDN handles TLS and static assets. Pages set a session cookie, so HTML always comes from the origin.
  • Compute

    Runs BookStack, Apache, PHP 8.3 and MySQL, installed by BookStack's own Ubuntu script.

  • Storage

    Holds image uploads (STORAGE_TYPE=s3) and nightly mysqldump backups.

  • CDN

    Terminates TLS, caches static assets and serves images straight from the bucket.

  • DNS

    Anycast DNS for docs.acme.com and the image subdomain.

  • Shield

    Scores registration and login posts before they reach Laravel.

  • Assist

    One script tag in Custom HTML Head Content gives readers answers grounded in your books.

Deploy

BookStack live in five steps

BookStack's own installer does the heavy lifting. Edge adds the bucket, the certificate and the CDN.
  1. 01

    Create the VM and a bucket

    The hardened-ssh library script disables password logins and turns on fail2ban and UFW before you connect.

    shell
    $ edge compute create --name docs --size s-2vcpu-4gb \
    --image ubuntu-24 --region london --script hardened-ssh
$ edge storage create bookstack-images
  2. 02

    Run the official installer

    It installs Apache, PHP 8.3 and MySQL, creates the database and asks for your domain.

    shell
    $ ssh root@<vm-ip>
$ BASE=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BookStackApp/devops/main
$ curl -sLO $BASE/scripts/installation-ubuntu-24.04.sh
$ chmod +x installation-ubuntu-24.04.sh
$ ./installation-ubuntu-24.04.sh
  3. 03

    Move images to Edge Storage

    New uploads go straight to the bucket. STORAGE_URL makes BookStack link images through the CDN domain you add in step five.

    /var/www/bookstack/.env
    APP_URL=https://docs.acme.com

STORAGE_TYPE=s3
STORAGE_S3_KEY=<edge-access-key>
STORAGE_S3_SECRET=<edge-secret-key>
STORAGE_S3_BUCKET=bookstack-images
STORAGE_S3_REGION=us-east-1
STORAGE_S3_ENDPOINT=https://storage.edge.network
STORAGE_URL=https://img.docs.acme.com
  4. 04

    Turn on single sign-on

    OIDC shown with Microsoft Entra. SAML 2.0 and LDAP work the same way, set in the same file.

    /var/www/bookstack/.env
    AUTH_METHOD=oidc
OIDC_NAME="Microsoft"
OIDC_DISPLAY_NAME_CLAIMS=name
OIDC_CLIENT_ID=<client-id>
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=<client-secret>
OIDC_ISSUER=https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenant-id>/v2.0
OIDC_ISSUER_DISCOVER=true
  5. 05

    Put the CDN in front

    One deployment, two domains: the app from the VM and images straight from the bucket.

    shell
    $ edge cdn create --name docs
$ edge cdn domains add cdn-a1b2c3 \
    --domain docs.acme.com --origin https://<vm-ip>
$ edge cdn domains add cdn-a1b2c3 \
    --domain img.docs.acme.com \
    --origin-type storage --storage-bucket bookstack-images

Prefer to hand it off? Give the job to your AI agent or have our engineers do it.

What it costs

Company docs for the price of one small VM

Documentation tools usually charge for every reader. Here readers are free and the bill is a VM, a bucket and a little CDN traffic.
  • One price for every reader and editor
  • SSO and per-page permissions at no extra cost
  • Small team? The $9.62 Starter size is enough
  • Hourly billing, optional hard caps, zero egress
See compute pricing

Estimated monthly bill on Edge

Company docs · 200 readers · 25 GB of images

USD
  • Compute$19.24Standard VM · 2 vCPU · 4 GiB · 80 GB NVMe
  • Storage$0.3025 GB of images and dumps, first 5 GB free
  • CDN$0.10900k requests, first 500k free, then $0.25 per million
  • DNS$0.00Zone plus docs and image subdomains
  • Egress$0.00
Total$19.64

FAQ

BookStack on Edge, answered

Something else? Ask an engineer.
How does this compare to Confluence?
It's cheaper (a flat VM price, not per user), simpler (a wiki, not a bolt-on to an issue tracker), and you keep root. The trade-off is fewer third-party integrations, though SSO, image storage and search are all built in.
How do I set up SSO?
BookStack supports SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect and LDAP natively. Set AUTH_METHOD and the provider details in .env for Microsoft Entra, Google Workspace, Okta, Authelia or Keycloak.
Why doesn't the CDN cache my pages?
BookStack sets a session cookie on every page, and the Edge CDN never caches responses that set cookies, so nobody is served someone else's session. The CDN caches CSS, JS and fonts and serves images from the bucket; HTML comes from the VM.
How do I back it up?
Images already live in Edge Storage. Add a nightly mysqldump to the same bucket, plus a copy of .env, and you can rebuild the whole site on a fresh VM.
Can I run several BookStack instances?
Yes. The simplest route is a small VM per team or product, each with its own domain on a CDN deployment. Your first three CDN deployments are free.

Drop-in services

Add these without touching the stack

Shield is one server-side check and Assist is one script tag. Both work alongside whatever you already run.

Self-hosted apps

Other stacks on Edge

All 38 stacks

Stand up your docs

Start free. Move off Confluence, or begin with a clean shelf.

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