Replace GitBook / ReadMe.io with Self-Hosted BookStack / Mintlify-OSS
Simple, self-hosted documentation platform with Book/Chapter/Page hierarchy, WYSIWYG & Markdown Stop paying Pro / Custom Domain ($65 base + $12/user/mo) ($185/mo for a 10-person team) and run BookStack / Mintlify-OSS on a $4.50/mo Linux VPS with full data sovereignty.
1-to-100 Seat Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Table
Comparing GitBook / ReadMe.io (Pro / Custom Domain ($65 base + $12/user/mo)) vs BookStack / Mintlify-OSS on Hetzner CX22 (4GB RAM / 2 vCPU).
| Team Size | GitBook / ReadMe.io Cost | BookStack / Mintlify-OSS VPS | Net Annual Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Seat (Solo) | $77.00/mo ($924/yr) | $4.50/mo (CX22) | +$870 / year |
| 5 Seats | $125.00/mo ($1,500/yr) | $4.50/mo (CX22) | +$1,446 / year |
| 10 Seats | $185.00/mo ($2,220/yr) | $4.50/mo (CX22) | +$2,166 / year |
| 25 Seats | $365.00/mo ($4,380/yr) | $4.50/mo (CX22) | +$4,326 / year |
| 50 Seats | $665.00/mo ($7,980/yr) | $4.50/mo (CX22) | +$7,926 / year |
| 100 Seats | $1,265.00/mo ($15,180/yr) | $4.50/mo (CX22) | +$15,126 / year |
Production Docker Compose + Caddy Auto-SSL
Copy and run docker compose up -d on any Ubuntu 24.04 server.
# Production Docker Compose: BookStack / Mintlify-OSS (Replaces GitBook / ReadMe.io)
services:
caddy:
image: caddy:2-alpine
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "80:80"
- "443:443"
volumes:
- ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
- caddy_data:/data
networks:
- stack_net
bookstack-fumadocs:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest
container_name: stack-bookstack-fumadocs
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- "APP_URL=https://kb.${DOMAIN:-yourdomain.com}"
volumes:
- bookstack_fumadocs_data:/data
networks:
- stack_net
networks:
stack_net:
driver: bridge
volumes:
caddy_data:
bookstack_fumadocs_data:
# Automatic Let's Encrypt HTTPS for BookStack / Mintlify-OSS
bookstack-fumadocs.{$DOMAIN:yourdomain.com} {
encode zstd gzip
reverse_proxy bookstack-fumadocs:80
}
Why Teams Switch to BookStack / Mintlify-OSS
- ✓Built-in diagrams.net drawing integration
- ✓Full-text instant search & PDF export
- ✓OIDC, SAML2 & LDAP authentication included
lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest
Deploy BookStack / Mintlify-OSS in 60 Seconds
Sized automatically for BookStack / Mintlify-OSS (256MB container RAM + OS overhead).
Get All 16 Pre-Built Production Stacks + Encrypted S3 Backups
Includes pre-tuned docker-compose.yml, Caddy Auto-SSL, AES-256 encrypted nightly S3/R2 Postgres backups, and Ubuntu 24.04 UFW/Fail2ban hardening scripts.