DokuWiki vs Wiki.js
We give DokuWiki a 2.8 GPA and Wiki.js a 3.0, out of 4.0. Wiki.js grades higher on platforms. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
How we grade them
| 2.8GPADokuWikiGood | 3.0GPAWiki.jsVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree of charge under the GNU General Public License version 2, with no paid edition at all. The project just asks companies that use it to consider donating. | AIt costs nothing. The whole application is free and open source under the AGPL-v3 license, with no paid tier holding features back. Your only bill is the server you run it on. |
| Free plan and trial | AThe whole wiki engine is a free download for your own web server. There's no paid plan to be pushed towards. | AAll of it is free, for good. The project is kept going by sponsors, backers and donations, so there isn't a paid plan to be nudged towards. |
| Features | BAccess controls, sign-in connectors, feeds pulled in from other sites and hundreds of plugins. Solid wiki basics. But pages are typed in DokuWiki's own formatting syntax, and the extras come from community plugins. | BThree editors (Markdown with live preview, a visual one and plain HTML), every change tracked with a visual compare, group permissions with page rules, and sync to Git or cloud storage. But version 3.0 is still in beta, and modules like the tabular editor are marked coming soon. |
| Ease of use | DYou install it yourself on a web server with PHP. Having no database helps, but it's still hosting, and editors have to learn the syntax. Help is a community forum and a mailing list. | DYou host it yourself. It needs a server that runs Node.js and its own domain or sub-domain, as it can't sit in a subfolder of another site. A DigitalOcean Marketplace image speeds things up, but there's no managed plan and no paid support. |
| Platforms and integrations | CIt runs in a browser from your own server and that's all. No phone or desktop apps and no integrations on record. Anything extra has to come from a plugin. | BIt's a web app that runs wherever Node.js does, with no desktop or phone apps listed. Modules connect it to GitHub, GitLab, Google, Slack, Okta and Elasticsearch, and a GraphQL API can read and change everything in the wiki. |
| Best for | a simple wiki with no database to run | a free Markdown wiki on your own server |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: DokuWiki and Wiki.js. How we grade
Where they differ
- DokuWiki is free. Wiki.js is free.
- Wiki.js also covers Markdown and diagrams.
In commonFree planWebOpen sourceSelf-hostableWiki
At a glance
| DokuWiki | Wiki.js | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | DokuWiki is available free of charge under the GNU General Public License version 2. The project asks companies that use it to consider donating. | The whole application is free and open source under the AGPL-v3 license. The project is supported by sponsors, backers and donations. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Andreas Gohr and the DokuWiki Community | Requarks.io |
| Price read from | download.dokuwiki.org | js.wiki |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
DokuWiki
- Small teams that want a wiki without running a database
- Administrators who value simple backups and maintenance
- Internal documentation that needs access controls at no cost
Wiki.js
- Developer teams that prefer writing documentation in Markdown
- Organizations that want a free wiki on their own infrastructure
- Wikis whose content should be mirrored to a Git repository
Worth knowing
DokuWiki
- You install and host it yourself on a web server with PHP. The download page points to partners that offer hosting with DokuWiki pre-installed.
- Pages are written in DokuWiki's own formatting syntax, which editors have to learn.
- The bundled web server option is for 64-bit Windows and is recommended for personal, single-user use only.
- Help comes from the community forum and mailing list; the author asks not to be contacted directly for support.
Wiki.js
- The site offers two ways to run it, self-hosting or a DigitalOcean Marketplace image, and lists no managed hosting plan or paid support.
- It requires a dedicated domain or sub-domain and cannot be mapped to a subfolder of another site.
- MySQL, MariaDB, MS SQL Server and SQLite will not be supported in the next major version, which keeps only PostgreSQL.
- Version 3.0 is still in beta, and several listed modules, such as the WikiText and tabular editors, are marked as coming soon.
Key features
DokuWiki
- No database required
- DokuWiki runs without a database server, which the project presents as the reason it is easy for administrators to maintain, back up and integrate.
- Plain-text wiki syntax
- Pages are written in a readable formatting syntax that covers headings, links, lists, tables, footnotes and media files, with syntax highlighting for code blocks.
- Access controls and authentication
- Built-in access controls and authentication connectors decide who can read or edit, which the project highlights as useful in an enterprise setting.
- Plugins
- Hundreds of plugins are available. The download page can bundle popular ones, such as CAPTCHA, Upgrade, Wrap, Translation and Gallery, into the package.
- Feeds and interwiki links
- A page can pull in data from external RSS and Atom feeds, and interwiki links give quick links to pages on other wikis such as Wikipedia.
- Languages and a portable option
- The interface comes in dozens of languages, and an optional download adds a minimal Windows web server with PHP for trying DokuWiki or running it from a USB stick.
Wiki.js
- Three editors
- Pages can be written in Markdown with a live preview, in a visual WYSIWYG editor meant for non-technical people, or directly in HTML.
- Version tracking
- All content changes are tracked. Two versions of a page can be compared visually, and a page can be reverted to an earlier state or recovered after deletion.
- Authentication modules
- Sign-in can use local accounts, services such as Google, GitHub and Slack, or LDAP, SAML, Okta and Azure AD, with two-factor authentication on supported modules.
- Git and cloud storage sync
- Content can be synchronized or backed up to Git services such as GitHub and GitLab, or to storage such as AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage.
- Groups, permissions and page rules
- Users are placed in groups with granular permissions, and page rules limit a group's access by exact path, by how a path starts or ends, or by regular expression.
- GraphQL API
- A GraphQL endpoint on each wiki reads and modifies all of its resources, using API tokens with permission scopes that are generated in the administration area.
Plans
DokuWiki
DokuWiki$0
The full wiki engine, downloaded and installed on your own web server. The download can be customized with languages and popular plugins.
Wiki.js
Wiki.js$0
The full application, hosted on your own servers or launched from the DigitalOcean Marketplace image, with community help through the project's support channels.
