Donate to BookStack

BookStack is Open Source software and the code & platform is provided totally without cost. The project was started as a passion project in free time, but has grown to require a lot of time to maintain the project and support the community. Donations provide financial support to keep time & focus on the project to help ongoing progress & development.

Donation methods

Currently, donations can be provided directly to the creator of BookStack in a couple of different ways:

  • GitHub Sponsors - Requires GitHub account.
  • Ko-fi - Supports payment via PayPal or by card (Stripe).

How are donations used?

The majority of donations cover the living costs of the project creator, Dan Brown, to allow them to focus on the project as much as possible. As of October 2021 Dan left his day-job to focus on the project; relying on savings, family-support and donations to cover living costs. Our support plans were also launched to help support finances.

A portion of donations are effectively forwarded on to other open source projects, many of which are projects and people that BookStack depends upon itself.

If interested, further details of our finances are often reported in our blogposts as reflected in our 2024 review post here.

Do I need to donate?

No, donations are not a requirement nor are they expected. The code and platform is provided for free under the MIT license. Donations are an appreciated bonus and can be a straight-forward way to support development of the project, especially for businesses that save money or profit through the use of BookStack.

Do I receive anything for my donation?

Apart from our gratitude, there are no material rewards for donations unless stated within our donation options. For example, some of the monthly sponsor options offer a bonus reward of public display of a company’s sponsorship on our website and GitHub repo.

If you could benefit from receiving assured technical support, our support plans offer a way to support the project while gaining such support benefits.

Can I support the project in a non-financial way?

Sure! We have a fairly detailed write-up on our blog regarding all the different ways that you can contribute to the project. Check out the blogpost here.

Can a company sponsor the project?

Sure! Within both the GitHub Sponsors and Ko-fi donation options there are specific “Bronze”, “Silver” and “Gold” company tiers listed. These provide the bonus benefit of your linked company logo being shown on the project homepage and in the project readme.

If preferred, we can provide invoicing and bank transfer options for sponsorship but this is only offered on an annual payment basis.

  • We reserve the right to reject displaying your logo for any reason. Generally we would only want to advertise companies that are suitable for BookStack’s own audience. Some examples of non-suitable category of companies would be: Crypto, Gambling, Adult Entertainment, etc…
  • It’s not always possible to refund a payment via our sponsor/donation options. If you need to be sure of reward (that we’d display your logo), please contact us first to confirm eligibility before paying for a sponsor/donation tier. You can contact us via .
  • Provided logo files may be modified to ensure they display in a standardised and expected manner.
  • Sponsor logo additions/removals may be delayed to be part of other site/project updates. Timings are not assured, but we generally aim to match the length of time displayed, to the length of time for which you have sponsored the project.
  • Provided logos are expected to be just the logo of a company, no additional advertisement/marketing/messaging content.