Web Design & Development Guide

conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media delivery via internet in the form of markup language suitable for interpretation by web browser and display as graphical user interface

Comparison of wiki software

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of wiki software packages.

General Information

  Creator First public release date Latest stable release Stable release date Predecessor Cost (USD) Software licence[1] Programming language Data backend
BrainKeeper BrainKeeper, Inc. 2006-04-19   2007-02-15 N/A Free Version Available, Subscriptions start at $35/month Proprietary PHP RDBMS
Central Desktop Central Desktop Inc. 2005-10-01 Winter Release '06 2006-09-12 N/A Free Ver Available, Paid plans start at $25/month Proprietary PHP PostgreSQL
Clearspace Jive Software 2007-02-07 1.2 2007-06-25 N/A Free for 5 users, additional users $29/user/year   J2EE/Java SQL/LDAP including:

MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, IBM DB2 and SQL Server

Confluence Atlassian Software Systems 2004-05-05 2.5.4 2007-06-12 N/A Free (open source project or community or personal), $1200?8000 commercial, $600?4000 academic Commercial, Academic, Community, Personal, Open Source Project Java, Java EE Relational DB (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, DB2, MS SQL Server)
Corendal Wiki Thierry Danard 2005-05-14   2007-02-12 N/A Free GPL Java MySQL or Oracle
coWiki Daniel T. Gorski; Paul Hanchett 2002-03 0.3.4
NO LONGER SUPPORTED
2005-02-24 N/A Free GPL PHP5 MySQL
DekiWiki MindTouch, OpenGarden.org 2006-07-25 2006.07.25 2006-07-25 MediaWiki Free and paid hosted versions. Free open source version available for download. Paid enterprise versions available as well GPL PHP, MONO MySQL
DidiWiki Matthew Allum  ? 0.5 2004-09-30 N/A Free GPL C File system
DokuWiki Andreas Gohr         Free GPL v2 PHP File system
EditMe EditMe, LLC 2002-08-01 2007.06.25 2007-06-25 N/A From $5/mo Proprietary Java (Hosted) MySQL
FlexWiki David Ornstein  ?   2005-12-02 N/A Free FlexWiki Shared Source Licensing Program ASP.NET, C# File system, SQL Server
Instiki David Heinemeier Hansson  ? 0.11.0 2006-03-19 N/A Free Ruby License[2] Ruby Active Record
  Creator First public release date Latest stable release Stable release date Predecessor Cost (USD) Software licence Programming language Data backend
JotSpot JotSpot 2004-10 2.0 2006-07-24 N/A From $100/mo Proprietary Java File system, XML
JSPWiki Janne Jalkanen 2001-07-06 2.4.100 2007-03-02 N/A Free LGPL Java Flat-file, RCS, SVN
Kerika Kerika, Inc. 2005-05-01 1.1 2007-05-01 N/A $9.95/month/user; free for anyone with ".edu" email address Proprietary Java Object-oriented database
MediaWiki Magnus Manske; Various 2002-01-25 1.10.0 2007-05-09 N/A Free GPL v2 PHP MySQL, PostgreSQL
Midgard Wiki Henri Bergius 2004-09-29 1.8.3 2007-04-25 N/A Free LGPL PHP MySQL and RCS
MoinMoin J?gen Hermann; Thomas Waldmann; ... 2000-07-28 1.5.7 2007-02-07 N/A Free GPL Python Flat-file
Near-Time Near-Time, Inc. 2005-11-20 2007.28.0 2007-27-06 N/A Starts at $24.99 per month for unlimited spaces and unlimited users Proprietary Ruby on Rails mySQL
OpenWiki    ? 0.78 sp1 2002-03-19 N/A Free   ASP, VBScript MS Access and SQL Server
OpenLink Wiki          ? Free GPL and Commercial License    
PAUX           From ?300/mo Free and Commercial License    
Perspective Alan Slater 2004-03 0.922 2007-02-06 N/A Free GPL ASP.NET, C#, XSLT Microsoft Indexing Service, XML
PhpWiki Steve Wainstead, ... 1999-12 1.3.14 2007-07-01 WikiWikiWeb Free GPL PHP Berkeley DB, Flat-file, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle 8, Firebird
PmWiki Patrick Michaud 2002-02-06 2.1.27 2006-12-11 N/A Free GPL PHP Flat-file
Socialtext Socialtext First public release in 2003 2.9.5.2 June 2007 2.9.5.1 Pricing varies. Available deployment options include: free open-source and VMware image downloads, hosted services and dedicated appliances. Open-source and commercial licensing options Perl PostgreSQL
  Creator First public release date Latest stable release Stable release date Predecessor Cost (USD) Software licence[3] Programming language Data backend
Swiki Mark Guzdial; Jochen Rick 1999-10 1.5 2005-12-06 N/A Free GPL Squeak File system
Sycamore Philip Neustrom 2006-05 1.0 2006-05-17 MoinMoin Free GPL Python PostgreSQL
ThoughtFarmer ThoughtFarmer May 2006 2.2.8 2007-07-31 N/A From $35,000 Proprietary ASP.NET, C# SQL Server
TigerWiki Chabel.org Mid-2005 2.19 2006-11-02 roWiki Free GPL PHP File system
TikiWiki Luis Argerich (200+ devs nowadays) 2002-10-09 1.9.7 2006-11-30 N/A Free GPL PHP PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, AdoDB
TWiki Peter Thoeny 1998-10 4.1.2 2007-03-03 JosWiki Free GPL Perl Flat-file, RCS, pluggable storage backend
UseModWiki Clifford Adams 2000-01-22 1.0 2003-09-12 AtisWiki Free GPL Perl Flat-file
WackoWiki Roman Ivanov 2003-03 R4.2 2005-03-27 WakkaWiki     PHP MySQL
Wiclear David Jobet 2004-06-25 0.10 2006-03-26 N/A Free GPL PHP MySQL
Wikiwig                  
WikkaWiki Wikka Development Team 2004-05-16 1.1.6.3 2007-05-07 WakkaWiki Free GPL PHP MySQL
WikkiTikkiTavi Tavi  ? 0.26
NO LONGER DEVELOPED
 ? N/A Free GPL PHP MySQL
XWiki Ludovic Dubost 2004-02 1.0 2007-05-22 N/A Free GPL/LGPL Java PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Apache Derby, HSQLDB
ZWiki Simon Michael 1999-11-05 0.59.0 2007-04-02 N/A Free GPL Python ZODB Object Database
  Creator First public release date Latest stable release Stable release date Predecessor Cost (USD) Software licence Programming language Data backend

Target audience

Wiki software Public Private Corporate/Enterprise Education Intranet
BrainKeeper Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Central Desktop Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Clearspace Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Confluence Yes Yes Yes Yes  
Corendal Wiki     Yes    
coWiki Yes Yes Yes    
DekiWiki Yes Yes Yes    
DidiWiki          
EditMe Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FlexWiki Yes Yes      
Instiki Yes Yes      
Wiki software Public Private Corporate/Enterprise Education Intranet
JotSpot Yes Yes Yes    
JSPWiki Yes Yes Yes    
Kerika Yes Yes Yes Yes  
MediaWiki Yes Yes Yes    
Midgard Wiki Yes Yes Yes    
MoinMoin Yes Yes Yes  
Near-Time Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
OpenWiki Yes Yes Yes    
Perspective          
PhpWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PmWiki Yes Yes      
Socialtext Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Wiki software Public Private Corporate/Enterprise Education Intranet
Swiki Yes Yes   Yes  
Sycamore Yes Yes      
ThoughtFarmer     Yes   Yes
TigerWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TikiWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
UseModWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes  
WackoWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes  
Wiclear Yes Yes      
Wikiwig Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
WikkaWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes  
WikkiTikkiTavi Yes        
XWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes  
ZWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes  
Wiki software Public Private Corporate/Enterprise Education Intranet

Features 1

  File uploading / attachments Spam prevention Page access control[4]  Inline HTML[5] User-customizable interface[6] Document renaming
BrainKeeper Yes Yes, CAPTCHA No Yes Yes, templates, html, custom navigation portal, custom data fields Yes
Central Desktop Yes Yes, CAPTCHA No Yes Yes, templates and themes, html and css No
Clearspace            
Confluence Yes Yes, CAPTCHA Yes optional Yes, templates and themes Yes, links are updated
Corendal Wiki Yes No Yes Yes Partial - Velocity templates + CSS Yes
coWiki No No Yes, due to UNIX-style permissions No Partial - hand-edited templates, document "Print version" Yes, all pages are seamlessly updated
DekiWiki Yes Yes Yes optional Yes Yes
DidiWiki No No No escaped Partial - style-sheets rename the document file
DokuWiki Yes Yes, blacklist Yes, optional optional Partial - CSS, PHP; heavily documented PHP API Yes, plugin
EditMe Yes No, blacklist Yes, optional Yes Partial - CSS, XSLT, user editable navigation Yes
FlexWiki No ? No? No Partial - style-sheets, templates, WikiTalk Yes, old page becomes a redirect
Instiki Yes No No Yes Partial - CSS No
  File uploading / attachments Spam prevention Page access control[7] Inline HTML[8] User-customizable interface[9] Document renaming
JotSpot Yes No Yes Yes, optional Partial - CSS Yes
JSPWiki Yes Yes, content by regexp Yes Yes, optional Partial - templates Patch available
Kerika Yes Yes, ACL for each project Yes No Partial - customizable toolbar Yes, full document management
MediaWiki Yes Yes, URL blacklist,[10] word blacklist,[11] IP blocking, captchas (as used on wikinews) Yes Yes Partial - many features are user-customizable, templates[12] Yes, old page becomes a redirect
Midgard Wiki Yes No Yes Yes Partial templates, CSS No
MoinMoin Yes Yes, BadContent filtering via Regular Expressions Yes No Yes - Themes, templates, CSS, XSLT, user editable navigation Yes, old page can be a redirect
Near-Time Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes, templates, html, custom navigation portal, custom data fields, CSS Yes
OpenWiki Yes Yes Yes No    
OpenLink Wiki Yes Yes Yes Yes templates, skins, user CSS, XSLT Yes
PAUX Yes Yes Yes Yes templates, skins, user CSS Yes
Perspective Yes   Yes (per collection) parameterized Raw Includes, in-page XSLT XSLT, CSS Yes, with aliases
PhpWiki Yes Yes, CPAN Blog::SpamAssassin Yes plugin themes; un-documented Yes
PmWiki Yes Yes, word/URL block (addon, auto-upd. database), URL-approval (option), encrypt e-mails (addon), nofollow, Captcha (addon) Yes module themes, user CSS, ... Template:Module
Socialtext Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
  File uploading / attachments Spam prevention Page access control[13] Inline HTML[14] User-customizable interface[15] Document renaming
Swiki Yes Yes, block IP Addresses, words, UserIDs Yes Yes For AniAniWebs, CSS Yes, updating all backlinks
Sycamore Yes Yes, block IP Addresses, UserIDs, hidden email addresses, CAPTCHA Yes No user CSS, themes Yes, old page redirects
ThoughtFarmer Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes
TigerWiki No No, to be coded Yes, password protection No Partial - style-sheets, template No
TikiWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes themes, user CSS, modules Yes
TWiki Yes Yes, IP blacklist, content by regexp, excessive activities, scripted registration prevention (plugin), hidden e-mail addresses Yes Yes templates, skins, user CSS Yes, fixing backlinks
UseModWiki Yes? ? Yes? Yes? CSS ?
WackoWiki Yes Yes, referrer blacklist Yes Yes - configurable/safe themes, style-sheets Yes
Wiclear Yes Yes, blacklist captcha Yes, available for plugin too Yes themes, style-sheets Yes
Wikiwig            
WikkaWiki Yes Yes, referrer blacklist (module), HTTP REQUEST analysis (module) Yes Yes - configurable/safe style-sheets No
WikkiTikkiTavi Yes Yes, Captcha No Yes - configurable/safe style-sheets No
XWiki Yes   Yes Yes style-sheets, templates, themes Yes
ZWiki Yes Yes Yes Yes style-sheets, templates, skins Yes
  File uploading / attachments Spam prevention Page access control[16] Inline HTML[17] User-customizable interface[18] Document renaming

Features 2

  WYSIWYG page editing Web feeds Extensibility Other Notable features
BrainKeeper Yes Yes, RSS   Enterprise-level Search, Interactive Dashboard, Tagging, Content Workflow, Custom Data Fields, Simple but Comprehensive Administration
Central Desktop Yes Yes, RSS   Block architecture, Calendars, Discussions, Database feature, Tasks and Milestones Blocks available
Clearspace        
Confluence Yes Yes, RSS plugins written in Java Enterprise level security, Simple admin interface, Open plugin API, Tagging, Fully supported
Corendal Wiki Yes No patch mechanism For Corporate environments. Articles hierarchy. Integrated with Active Directory users and groups, NTLM authentication, Workflow, Revisions, Subscriptions, WYSIWYG editor, Access Control (Read and Write)
coWiki ? Yes, RSS[19] plugins via an OOP interface Data saved hierarchic (web trees) and in XML, per-page threaded comments, comfortable installation wizard
DekiWiki Yes Yes, RSS, XML, JSON API, Service Oriented Architecture Highly usable, stores in XML, SOA, API, enterprise arch and business focused, fully supported by MindTouch company website
DidiWiki No No   extremely fast and requires very little RAM, built-in web server
DokuWiki YesQuickbuttons Yes, RSS/Atom[20] custom regexps Section Editing, XHTML-Compliant, nice tables, side-by-side diff, namespaces, Interwiki
EditMe Yes Yes, RSS javascript Multi-level access controls, hosted solution, side-by-side diff, Email notifications
FlexWiki No Yes, RSS ASP, WikiTalk, .Net Reflection plugins Forms, Scripting
Instiki No   fairly trivial with minimal Ruby knowledge Trivial to set up on any platform that supports Ruby. Can use different (administrator-set) markup languages. Supports inline HTML, Textile, Markdown, and RDoc.
  WYSIWYG page editing Web feeds Extensibility Other Notable features
JotSpot Yes