Talk:Comparison of wiki software

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Contents

[edit] Table format

This table is really hard to read. Can someone rotate it 90 degrees? 171.67.73.10 22:02, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Gotta agree that it's hard to read, it forces you to page up each time you want to try to figure out whether some software distribution has feature X.

I inserted the column of headings every 5-6 software descriptions to address this concern --Trödel 12:46, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
I got to say that it is still ridiculously big. Is there any other option to make it easier to compare different wiki software without annoying lots of scrolling? 71.250.35.162 21:31, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
I agree, the table format is totally wrong... The items to compare should be listed vertically and the properties horizontally. A table with lots of entries expands vertically, a very detailed table expands horizontally, that's just the way tables are meant... not to mention the loss of space because some fields have whole sentences in a very narrow but high cell. --194.109.234.123 15:15, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
I agree, different wikis should be on the x-axis, features should be on the y-axis. In addition, stuff like webserver required is already on the table above, and required software could be moved to the table above. SavantEdge 10:52, 4 January 2007 (UTC)


My suggestion for layout and organization -Michael 68.51.39.136 08:32, 24 September 2006 (UTC) ...

[edit] Comparison table

Basic general information about the distributions: creator/company, license/price etc.

[edit] Requirements

Requirements Target audience Software license [1] Cost (USD) Ease of installation Operating System Programming Language Data backend Web-server required Other software required Extensibility
Central Desktop

Release: v??
Central Desktop Inc.

Corporate; Intranet; Public; Private; Education Commercial
Confluence

Release: v2.2.7
Atlassian Software Systems

Corporate; Public; Private; Education Commercial
CorendalWiki

Release: v2.0.10
Thierry Danard

Corporate GPL
coWiki

Release: v0.3.4
Daniel T. Gorski; Paul Hanchett

Corporate; Public; Private GPL
DidiWiki

Release: v0.5
Matthew Allum

Personal GPL
DokuWiki

Release: v2006.03.09
Andreas Gohr

Corporate; Public; Private GPL v2
EditMe

Release: v2006.06.03
EditMe, LLC

Corporate; Intranet; Enterprise; Education; Public; Private Commercial
FlexWiki

Release: v??
David Ornstein

Public; Private FlexWiki Shared Source Licensing Program
Instiki

Release: v0.11.0
David Heinemeier Hansson

Public; Private Ruby License [2]
JotSpot

Release: v2.0
JotSpot

Corporate; Public; Private Commercial
JSPWiki

Release: v2.2.33
Janne Jalkanen

Corporate; Public; Private LGPL
MediaWiki

Release: v1.7.1
Magnus Manske; Various

Corporate; Public; Private GPL v2
Midgard Wiki

Release: v1.7.4
Henri Bergius

Corporate; Public; Private LGPL
MoinMoin

Release: v1.5.4
Jürgen Hermann; Thomas Waldmann
Was: PikiPiki

Corporate; Public; Private GPL
OpenWiki

Release: v0.78 sp1
OpenWikiNG

Corporate; Public; Private ?
OpenLink Wiki

Release: v??
Openlink Software

Corporate; Public; Private GPL and Commercial License
Perspective

Release: v0.906
Alan Slater

Corporate; Intranet; Public; Private GPL
PhpWiki

Release: v1.3.12p2
Steve Wainstead
Was: WikiWikiWeb

Public; Private GPL
PmWiki

Release: v2.1.26
Patrick Michaud

Public; Private GPL
Swiki

Release: v1.5
Mark Guzdial; Joachim Rick

Education; Public; Private GPL
TikiWiki

Release: v1.9.3.1
Luis Argerich (200+ devs nowadays)

Corporation; Education; Public; Private LGPL
TWiki

Release: v4.0.4 Hotfix 3
Peter Thoeny and TWiki community
Was: JosWiki

Corporate; Intranet; Enterprise; Education; Public; Private GPL
UseModWiki

Release: v1.0
Clifford Adams
Was: AtisWiki

Corporate?; Education; Public; Private GPL
WackoWiki

Release: vR4.2
Roman Ivanov
Was: WakkaWiki

Corporate; Education; Public; Private BSD
Wiclear

Release: v0.10
David Jobet

Public; Private GPL
WikkaWiki

Release: v1.1.6.2
Wikka Development Team
Was: WakkaWiki

Corporate; Education; Public; Private GPL
WikkiTikkiTavi

Release: v0.26
Tavi

Public GPL
XWiki

Release: v0.9.840
Ludovic Dubost

Corporate; Education; Public; Private GPL/LGPL

[edit] Features 1

Features 1 Demo Spam prevention Page access control Document renaming User customizable interface File uploading / attachments Web feeds WYSIWYG page editing Inline HTMLInline HTML
Central Desktop

Release: v??
Central Desktop Inc.

Confluence

Release: v2.2.7
Atlassian Software Systems

CorendalWiki

Release: v2.0.10
Thierry Danard

coWiki

Release: v0.3.4
Daniel T. Gorski; Paul Hanchett

DidiWiki

Release: v0.5
Matthew Allum

DokuWiki

Release: v2006.03.09
Andreas Gohr

EditMe

Release: v2006.06.03
EditMe, LLC

FlexWiki

Release: v??
David Ornstein

Instiki

Release: v0.11.0
David Heinemeier Hansson

JotSpot

Release: v2.0
JotSpot

JSPWiki

Release: v2.2.33
Janne Jalkanen

MediaWiki

Release: v1.7.1
Magnus Manske; Various

Midgard Wiki

Release: v1.7.4
Henri Bergius

MoinMoin

Release: v1.5.4
Jürgen Hermann; Thomas Waldmann
Was: PikiPiki

OpenWiki

Release: v0.78 sp1
OpenWikiNG

OpenLink Wiki

Release: v??
Openlink Software

Perspective

Release: v0.906
Alan Slater

PhpWiki

Release: v1.3.12p2
Steve Wainstead
Was: WikiWikiWeb

PmWiki

Release: v2.1.26
Patrick Michaud

Swiki

Release: v1.5
Mark Guzdial; Joachim Rick

TikiWiki

Release: v1.9.3.1
Luis Argerich (200+ devs nowadays)

TWiki

Release: v4.0.4 Hotfix 3
Peter Thoeny and TWiki community
Was: JosWiki

UseModWiki

Release: v1.0
Clifford Adams
Was: AtisWiki

WackoWiki

Release: vR4.2
Roman Ivanov
Was: WakkaWiki

Wiclear

Release: v0.10
David Jobet

WikkaWiki

Release: v1.1.6.2
Wikka Development Team
Was: WakkaWiki

WikkiTikkiTavi

Release: v0.26
Tavi

XWiki

Release: v0.9.840
Ludovic Dubost

[edit] Features 2

Features 2 Installation wizard Multilingual Email notification Search Revisions Diff Discussions Comments Forms and Scripting XHTML Compliant
Central Desktop

Release: v??
Central Desktop Inc.

Confluence

Release: v2.2.7
Atlassian Software Systems

CorendalWiki

Release: v2.0.10
Thierry Danard

coWiki

Release: v0.3.4
Daniel T. Gorski; Paul Hanchett

DidiWiki

Release: v0.5
Matthew Allum

DokuWiki

Release: v2006.03.09
Andreas Gohr

EditMe

Release: v2006.06.03
EditMe, LLC

FlexWiki

Release: v??
David Ornstein

Instiki

Release: v0.11.0
David Heinemeier Hansson

JotSpot

Release: v2.0
JotSpot

JSPWiki

Release: v2.2.33
Janne Jalkanen

MediaWiki

Release: v1.7.1
Magnus Manske; Various

Midgard Wiki

Release: v1.7.4
Henri Bergius

MoinMoin

Release: v1.5.4
Jürgen Hermann; Thomas Waldmann
Was: PikiPiki

OpenWiki

Release: v0.78 sp1
OpenWikiNG

OpenLink Wiki

Release: v??
Openlink Software

Perspective

Release: v0.906
Alan Slater

PhpWiki

Release: v1.3.12p2
Steve Wainstead
Was: WikiWikiWeb

PmWiki

Release: v2.1.26
Patrick Michaud

Swiki

Release: v1.5
Mark Guzdial; Joachim Rick

TikiWiki

Release: v1.9.3.1
Luis Argerich (200+ devs nowadays)

TWiki

Release: v4.0.4 Hotfix 3
Peter Thoeny and TWiki community
Was: JosWiki

UseModWiki

Release: v1.0
Clifford Adams
Was: AtisWiki

WackoWiki

Release: vR4.2
Roman Ivanov
Was: WakkaWiki

Wiclear

Release: v0.10
David Jobet

WikkaWiki

Release: v1.1.6.2
Wikka Development Team
Was: WakkaWiki

WikkiTikkiTavi

Release: v0.26
Tavi

XWiki

Release: v0.9.840
Ludovic Dubost

[edit] Other Notable features

Other Notable features
Central Desktop

Release: v??
Central Desktop Inc.

Confluence

Release: v2.2.7
Atlassian Software Systems

CorendalWiki

Release: v2.0.10
Thierry Danard

coWiki

Release: v0.3.4
Daniel T. Gorski; Paul Hanchett

DidiWiki

Release: v0.5
Matthew Allum

DokuWiki

Release: v2006.03.09
Andreas Gohr

EditMe

Release: v2006.06.03
EditMe, LLC

FlexWiki

Release: v??
David Ornstein

Instiki

Release: v0.11.0
David Heinemeier Hansson

JotSpot

Release: v2.0
JotSpot

JSPWiki

Release: v2.2.33
Janne Jalkanen

MediaWiki

Release: v1.7.1
Magnus Manske; Various

Midgard Wiki

Release: v1.7.4
Henri Bergius

MoinMoin

Release: v1.5.4
Jürgen Hermann; Thomas Waldmann
Was: PikiPiki

OpenWiki

Release: v0.78 sp1
OpenWikiNG

OpenLink Wiki

Release: v??
Openlink Software

Perspective

Release: v0.906
Alan Slater

PhpWiki

Release: v1.3.12p2
Steve Wainstead
Was: WikiWikiWeb

PmWiki

Release: v2.1.26
Patrick Michaud

Swiki

Release: v1.5
Mark Guzdial; Joachim Rick

TikiWiki

Release: v1.9.3.1
Luis Argerich (200+ devs nowadays)

TWiki

Release: v4.0.4 Hotfix 3
Peter Thoeny and TWiki community
Was: JosWiki

UseModWiki

Release: v1.0
Clifford Adams
Was: AtisWiki

WackoWiki

Release: vR4.2
Roman Ivanov
Was: WakkaWiki

Wiclear

Release: v0.10
David Jobet

WikkaWiki

Release: v1.1.6.2
Wikka Development Team
Was: WakkaWiki

WikkiTikkiTavi

Release: v0.26
Tavi

XWiki

Release: v0.9.840
Ludovic Dubost

-Michael 68.51.39.136 21:58, 24 September 2006 (UTC)


The article says: 'Basic general information about the distributions: creator/company, license/price etc. (Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc does a great job rendering this table useful)'. So, how do you do this?

- Don.209.217.75.155 15:35, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Inspired by Comparison of Linux distributions

Inspired by Comparison of Linux distributions, this is meant to evolve into a sane replacement for the list found in Wiki software and should also absorb Wiki software using MySQL (why does that page exist?).

Some of these are content management systems. That will definitely need to be figured out.. what CMS' qualify as wikis? I would say that it's the internal markup language and link handling. I'll have to go through the List of content management systems to see what ought to be copied into this comparison list.

-- Suggestions

I am interested in hearing ideas on organizing this effectively. What categories of information would be good to display? Are there any other items of comparison which should be added? Comment freely.

I transposed the first table. It is now harder to edit, but much, much easier to read. This page is hopeless compared to the chart at splitbrain[3], but it is a start. I would suggest we put everthing in one big table to make comparison easier.


-- Sy / (talk)

This page, in my opinion, is a very good idea, yet desperately needs more data. Showing 4 wikis and claiming that the table is "The Comparison" is also rather dangerous, as it suggests these are The Best Ones, and that there are nearly no other - while I doubt the first statement, and the latter is absolutely false. I wanted to move the 'stub' mark to the beginning of the page, only I saw that there were many edits recently, so I hope it quickly gets better.

My $.02 said --Akavel 15:23, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I totally agree with you. It was meant to be very roughly stub-like, and a beginning tool to be added as I or others explored other wikis. Wikis tend to not present their information cleanly enough to allow for really easy comparison, so this table is really leaning on the research and experience of others. -- Sy / (talk) 22:14, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Inline importing / Inline exporting

What do you mean by that terms. I do not undrstand them. They need more explanation, please :) --213.140.17.106 13:10, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Indeed. There are no wiki engines listed that support it, and one listed as ?. Does this refer to inline RSS importing? If so, what is meant by inline exporting? -- Josquin 03:30, May 11, 2005 (UTC)
Ack, I totally forget why I put those there. I think I was meaning to describe the ability to import/export content directly using the wiki interface. So a wiki which can dynamically generate a PDF would qualify. Still, it's WAY too vague.. so I'm going to remove that. -- Sy / (talk) 22:14, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Other possible features

  • Report generation and user-specified templating/css etc
  • Markup languages supported
    • Show an example of the wiki syntax
      • grouping syntax "comptible" wikis
  • how about a [Comparison of wiki-hosting sites]? i only know of wikispaces.org and i like it, but since i'm so new to this, i don't really know what features i should really be looking for or what exactly is the best one. i think that could be helpful. maybe it should be a whole new entry? i don't know, but this seemed the most rational place to put a comparison idea.
    • This wouldn't be the right page to start this, and I'm not evven sure that this is appropriate for Wikipedia at all. I do my hosting at home, so I only have peripheral experience. Why don't you make a little list in this talk page or your user page and I'll see if I can work with it to help you out. -- Sy / (talk)
  • ...
And how about listing wether or not it will run in PHP Safe-mode (for PHP based wiki software). Some hosts (Sourceforge?) only allows safe-mode.
Jouke 13:21, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
  • List whether root access is required for installation, or answer the question: How hard it is to install in an ISP hosted environment (without root access)? -- DBooth 04:21, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Add a "Hide Column" link to each column? I don't know how difficult this would be with JavaScript or CSS (or whether it would even be permitted on wikipedia), but one difficulty in trying to read the table is that it is too wide to be able to see the first column, which lists the comparison axes. If this feature is feasible to implement, perhaps column might collapse into a single "+" link, for re-expansion. -- DBooth 04:21, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] MediaWiki installation

WikiEngineComparison at MoinMoinWiki lists MediaWiki installation as easy, but it is listed as Difficult here. Which is it? --Pmsyyz 15:54, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Well i cant really see a wiki stating that their own wiki software is difficult to install, also since the author probably use MM i'm sure they think it is very easy to install. I would suspect that it was listed here as difficult because it requires python to be installed and since in most cases it is not it may be taking into account it is using a language that isnt terribly common for web applications. To be perfectly honest from browsing through the installation tar.gz i would rate it as very hard to install. Although it does come with an install script it requires a lot of other work ( added special folders outside the html folder for the database, make sure the chmods are right, etc. )--2mcmGespräch 21:32, 5 October 2005 (UTC)
It's easy, but the question is POV. I don't see how it can be justified in an encyclopedia article. Angela. 20:26, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Integration

MediaWiki can integrate with phpbb via a plugin, other wikis like DokuWiki require hacking source. Other wikis don't support integration at all. This is a make/break decision for some sites, it would be useful to have this info in the table.

[edit] OddMuse/UseMod

Okay, am I blind (damn you, LASIK procedure!) or are there no entries for these two major types of wiki software here? I'm trying to figure out whether/how to improve this list w/o stepping on toes... nae'blis (talk) 16:33, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

No, there aren't. I was wondering that myself. —User:ACupOfCoffee@ 00:55, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Be bold, and add it yourself! It's the WikiWay!

[edit] "Ease of use"

I am not a computer programmer. All of these "easy" programs to install are almost impossible to install. That is why I added a footnote that the "ease of installation" is terribly misleading.

Wiki programs are obviously still in their infancy, because only computer programers can understand how to use them. Travb 00:40, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

I read your link for the installation instructions for istwiki. They amounted to downloading the file and unzipping it to a specific directory. what could be easier? -lethe talk 09:12, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
It would be worth noting that these comparisons ("easy", etc) are in relation to other server-side software products, and not to general desktop applications. Manning 19:12, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Demo section

I thought I'd add this as I'd like to see a simple link to a plain demo of each wiki software.

Please add more direct links to a demo (preferably on the official site of the wiki software)

cheers Treelovinhippie 02:48, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

A (pretty sparse) demo section has been added some time after this note. Antonrojo 21:25, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Advice section

The Advice section mentions that a point of consideration might be wether pages are stored as (plain) text files, or in a database (ie MySQL), but this is not mentioned in the comparisson table! Jouke 12:31, 2 January 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Link Format

Hi. I think it would be useful to have link format discussed in the table. I personally find CamelCase rather yucky, so I wouldn't want to install a wiki that used that for its links. (In fact, since wikipedia is almost certainly by far the biggest wiki on the net, I imagine that many people would be expecting a format similar to mediawiki's - anything else could be confusing...) Jamse 17:50, 1 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Page History

I just noticed that page history isn't listed in the features table. This seems like a key feature. Also, I think the 'WikiMatrix' link [4] which includes a nice wizard for selecting a wiki should feature more prominatly. The table on this page is quite extensive and while helpful it can be hard to do direct comparisions. Antonrojo 21:31, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki standards

I don't know if anybody is tending this page, but a big question I have about the software is whether there are any standards any of the groups are trying to work toward for page storage format. Also I would like to see whether the software has a corporation, foundation, partnership, or other stabilizing cooperative effort behind its future. Without asking anybody to immediately add this info to the article, could I discuss these issues with anybody knowledgeable here? Thanks. Tom Haws 18:41, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Math support

Could someone please add how and ahow much these wiki's support writing of mathematical equations? This would be a valuable information to have. Thank you!

[edit] WYSIWYG

WikiEdit is not WYSIWYG - it is buttons that do the wiki edit markup. Benjaminhill 09:19, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

wysiwyg;

wYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get;

what you see is what you get.

hopiakuta 01:58, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Possible software to add to the list

  • [5] TiddlyWiki. It's easy to use and instantaneous. Is it appropriate for this list of software? --A vivid dreamer 11:21, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
  • [6] Pbwiki. Fully hosted. Limited functions. --216.132.47.20 13:14, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Need suggestion for Wiki selection

Hi, I am trying to choose a wiki for a small user group. I am getting really confused reading all the artilces in discussions posted on different websites. Here are my basic requirements. It will be great if anyone could suggest one.

Usre group: -

  1. About 20 – 25 users – very savvy, smart, and busy people but not very technically inclined
  2. So I want to have a very easy to use editor
  3. Will not have dedicated admin so need easy installation and maintenance. (don’t want to go for hosted service because of sensitive content)

Wiki Features: -

  1. Must supports large attachments (presentations and educational videos)
  2. Must be easily searchable, hopefully to the attachment level
  3. Should not have anonymous read access.
  4. It will be great if I could integrate it with the user authorization system my university offers
  5. It will be great if users could export & import pages from word and not have to use the wiki editing tags
  6. I am not sure whether I will have a unix or windows server. Will the choice of server maker a difference in installation and performance?

Thanks again --Varij 18:41, 3 July 2006 (UTC)varij

[edit] Runs on Windows

I'm a little confused as to why Windows is singled out. I'm doing some research with a coworker (I use Mac and Windows and she is currently experimenting with Ubuntu) and found this comparison chart fairly helpful except for the "Runs on Windows" section. We need to know if these wikis will run on several different platforms as well as windows. Maybe the category should just be "Platform" and then list all the OS's that the wikis can operate under.

[edit] EditMe ?

This is comparison of wiki software (the software that you can install on your server), not comparison of hosted services - so why EditMe is in the list?

[edit] other wikis

[7]

[edit] MediaWiki does not *need* Apache/IIS

Web-server required: Apache or IIS with PHP 5.0+

that's just not true.. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Installing_MediaWiki_with_Lighttpd

I don't see why it would need any specific server; it just needs PHP and MySQL, right? rewriting URLs is not compulsory.

And, based on Wikipedia, it supports searches.


wysiwyg;

wYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get;

what you see is what you get.

hopiakuta 01:59, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GetWiki

GetWiki should be included on the list for comparison. --165.230.46.150 19:01, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Installed base (or relative popularity)

I often go to Wikipedia to see what software options I have to chose from. It would be very nice to be able to discern the most-used programs.

I usually want to chose a major program and not a "fly by night" program that will be gone in a few months.

Thanks for considering this! --Calan 06:32, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Popular wiki engine

I'd like to know what's the most popular wiki engine running on Windows/IIS platform in terms of installation base? Mahanchian 12:27, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ZWiki should be Zwiki

The mis-capitalizing of ZWiki makes the link to Zwiki not work. Should there be a ZWiki topic that points to Zwiki or should only this topic be fixed?

[edit] CoWiki is dead

as of December 13, 2006. Someone want to make the relevant change who knows more about the appropriate formatting for this page? [unsigned]

It was the reason I made this page in the first place, but I think it ought to be removed entirely, to help reduce the noise of this page. -- Sy / (talk) 11:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is MediaWiki the best?

Is MediaWiki the best? [unsigned]

The wikipedia does not form opinions, and talk pages are for discussing the articles, not for forum-style chatting. -- Sy / (talk) 11:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ZWiki

Why does ZWiki say "Python (included with most Zope installs)". Isn't Zope written in Python? How is it possible to have Zope without Python?

[edit] Adding new entry for a new wiki product

How do I go about adding in an entry for Jive Software's Clearspace product? Barrytallis 18:30, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Sorry about my comment to "see talk". Thought there was a description here already.
The product (or company creating the product) should already have it's own article, demonstrating it's notability. --Ronz 18:33, 6 March 2007 (UTC)