TiddlyWiki vs Zim
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Where they differ
- TiddlyWiki is free. Zim is free.
- Only TiddlyWiki lists a web app.
- TiddlyWiki is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Zim also covers daily notes and tasks.
In commonFree planmacOSWindowsLinuxOpen sourceNotesLinked notesWiki
At a glance
| TiddlyWiki | Zim | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Free and open source under the BSD 3-Clause license, with no license fee. The project collects donations through Open Collective for its community infrastructure. | Open-source software under the GPL 2.0 license. The download page offers the source, a Windows installer, a macOS app and Linux packages, and lists no paid edition. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | Jeremy Ruston and the TiddlyWiki community | Jaap Karssenberg |
| Price read from | tiddlywiki.com | zim-wiki.org |
| Checked | Oct 6, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
TiddlyWiki
- People who want their notes in a file they fully control
- Tinkerers who customize a notebook with plugins, macros and filters
- Publishing a small wiki or documentation site as static HTML
Zim
- A personal wiki or scratch book kept as files on your own disk
- Daily or weekly journals and meeting or lecture notes
- People who want their notes under Git or another version control system
Worth knowing
TiddlyWiki
- The browser's File / Save menu does not save changes; a saving method such as Tiddlyhost or TiddlyDesktop has to be chosen first.
- Notes are written in TiddlyWiki's own WikiText markup; Markdown is available only through an official plugin.
- The iOS and Android apps the documentation points to, Quine and Tiddloid, are published independently of the project.
- The Node.js server does not pick up tiddler files edited on disk while it runs; it has to be restarted.
Zim
- Notebooks have no built-in encryption or password protection; the FAQ points to an outside tool such as encfs.
- Zim is written as a single-user program, so shared notebooks rely on a version control system to merge changes.
- The download page covers Linux, BSD, Windows and macOS only, and syncing means copying the notebook folder with a service such as Dropbox.
- The Windows installer supports 64-bit systems only, and the macOS app supports macOS Big Sur through Sequoia.
Key features
TiddlyWiki
- Single-file notebook
- The whole wiki, content and code, lives in one HTML file that opens in a web browser with no install and no external dependencies.
- Tiddlers, links and tags
- Notes are small units called tiddlers, connected by links and tags. Each tiddler's info panel lists its backlinks and the tiddlers tagged with it.
- WikiText and filters
- WikiText covers formatting, links, transclusions and macros, and filters build lists of tiddlers by tag or field, such as a glossary.
- Plugins
- Optional plugins install from the official library or from community sites. The official set includes Markdown, KaTeX, CodeMirror and Highlight plugins.
- Built-in encryption
- A single-file wiki can be given a password and saved with AES 256-bit encryption, so the file asks for the password before showing any content.
- Node.js server edition
- Running on Node.js stores each tiddler as a separate file and lets any modern browser, including those on phones and tablets, edit the wiki.
Zim
- Plain-text wiki pages
- Every page is a text file with wiki markup and images are ordinary linked files, so the content stays readable in other editors and file managers.
- Links in both directions
- Linking to a page that does not exist creates it. Zim tracks all links and shows, for each page, which other pages link to it.
- Hierarchical notebooks
- Pages nest as sub-pages in a folder structure, much like an outliner, and each page can carry attachments.
- Plugins
- Plugins add a task list dialog, an equation editor, calendar pages for daily or weekly journals, spell checking and a tray icon.
- Version control
- A Version Control plugin works with Git, Mercurial or Bazaar, which also lets several people merge changes to one notebook.
- HTML export
- Notes can be exported to HTML for publishing; the project's own website is written in Zim.
Plans
TiddlyWiki
TiddlyWiki$0
The full notebook as a single HTML file, in the TiddlyDesktop app or on a Node.js server. No account is needed.
Zim
Zim$0
The full desktop wiki for Linux, Windows and macOS, with its plugins.
