# MediaWiki

> The free wiki software that powers Wikipedia

MediaWiki is free, GPL-licensed wiki software, originally written for Wikipedia, that you install on your own web server. Pages are written in wikitext or with the bundled VisualEditor, every revision is kept so changes can be reverted, and extensions add further functions. It was designed for large, open, high-traffic sites, and its own manual warns that it is often not suited to wikis that need to restrict access to part of their content.

- **Category:** Docs & Wikis
- **Made by:** Wikimedia Foundation (since 2003)
- **Website:** https://www.mediawiki.org
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 5, 2026

## Pricing

MediaWiki is free to use.

- **Pricing model:** Free
- **Free plan:** The software is free of charge and licensed under version 2 or later of the GNU General Public License, with no warranty.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| MediaWiki | $0 | The full software, downloaded and installed on your own server, with help from the community support desk. |

Read from https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download on Oct 5, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with MediaWiki before buying.

## Key features

- **Wikitext and VisualEditor:** Pages use MediaWiki's wikitext format, which needs no knowledge of HTML or CSS. The VisualEditor extension, bundled since version 1.35, allows editing pages as rich content instead.
- **Full revision history:** Every edit is written to the database without deleting earlier versions of the page, so vandalism, spam or mistakes can be reverted easily.
- **Extensions:** Administrators add functions by installing extensions. Some are bundled with the software; third-party ones may be unmaintained or incompatible with each other.
- **Action API:** A web service at the api.php endpoint lets programs log in, read data and post changes over HTTP, covering features such as page operations and search.
- **Built for high traffic:** The software was designed to serve sites that get millions of hits a day. It supports caching and can be coupled with proxy server software.
- **Image and media files:** MediaWiki also manages images and multimedia files, which are stored in the server's file system rather than in the database.

## Good for

- Large public wikis and encyclopedia-style reference sites
- Organizations with a server administrator to install and update it
- Communities that already know how to edit Wikipedia

## Worth knowing

- The manual says MediaWiki is often not suitable when access to part of a wiki must be restricted, because it was designed for open content.
- You host it yourself: it needs PHP 8.3 or later, web server software and a database such as MariaDB or MySQL, and ongoing security upgrades.
- It is optimized for very high-traffic sites and may not suit small sites where disk space or memory is the tighter limit.
- Hosting comes only from third parties: the site lists hosting services that the Wikimedia Foundation neither guarantees nor endorses.

**Tags:** Wiki, Open source, Self-hostable, Public API

## Alternatives

- [DokuWiki](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dokuwiki): Open-source wiki software that needs no database. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/dokuwiki-vs-mediawiki)
- [XWiki](https://toolgpa.com/tools/xwiki): Open-source enterprise wiki with structured data and apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mediawiki-vs-xwiki)
- [BookStack](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bookstack): Free self-hosted wiki organized into books, chapters and pages. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bookstack-vs-mediawiki)
- [Wiki.js](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wiki-js): Open-source wiki software built on Node.js with Git sync. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mediawiki-vs-wiki-js)
- [BlueSpice](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bluespice): Open-source enterprise wiki built on MediaWiki. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bluespice-vs-mediawiki)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 5, 2026:

- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:What_is_MediaWiki%3F
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installation_requirements
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_history
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Action_API
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Extensions
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:VisualEditor
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Hosting_services
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Differences_between_Wikipedia,_Wikimedia,_MediaWiki,_and_wiki

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/mediawiki
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