WikiEngineComparison"

Comparison Table

Feature / WikiEngine

MoinMoin

ZWiki

TikiWiki

TWiki

PHPWiki

MediaWiki

JSPWiki

UseMod

PmWiki

WikkaWiki

Trac

Database

works without

ZODB

any dba (ADODB)

works without

any dba/ ADODB/ PearDB or files

mysql

you-name-it or without

works without

works without

MySQL

SQLite/PostgreSQL

Programming Language

python

python

php

perl

php

php

Java

perl

php

php

python

Categorization

using backlinks

in tree form

nested categories and/or structures

by webs

using backlinks

real categories (added in v1.3.0)

flat

using backlinks

links, groups, categories

categories

flat, backlinks (macro)

Groups

yes (users, pages)

Zope Roles

yes, also nested groups possible

yes

yes

limited

roles

no

yes

no

yes

Versioning

yes

Zope Versioning

yes

yes (RCS)

yes

yes

file or RCS

yes

yes

no

yes

Latex Formulas

add on

plugin

plugin (currently disabled -- security issues)

plugin

plugin

yes (installation seperate)

plugin

no

plugin

plugin

no

Tables

yes

yes

yes

default plugin

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes (markup/html)

yes

Inlined HTML

add on

yes

yes

yes

subset

yes, limited

optional

yes

optional

yes/no/safe

yes

Email Notification

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

plugin

yes

yes

no

no

Comments

add on

yes

yes

plugin

plugin

on discussion page

yes

no

plugin

yes

plugin

Feature / WikiEngine

MoinMoin

ZWiki

TikiWiki

TWiki

PHPWiki

MediaWiki

JSPWiki

UseMod

PmWiki

WikkaWiki

Trac

Permissions

ACLs

extensive Zope permissions assignable to Zope roles

elaborate permissions assignable to groups

yes, assignable to groups

ACLs

limited

page level or higher

yes, assignable to groups

yes

ACLs per page

yes, assignable to groups

Performance1

fast

fast

fast

a little slower

fast

a little slower

fast

fast

fast

(normally fast)

Extensibility

plugins, themes

python scripts, zope Products

plugins

plugins, skins

plugins

plugins

plugins,filters,almost everything is a module

patches

plugins, themes

actions, handlers

macros, plugins, components

Unicode Support

complete

unknown

unknown

yes

unknown

yes

yes

yes

yes

no

yes

Right to left support

yes

unknown

yes

unknown

unknown

yes

unknown

unknown

unknown

no

unknown

Search

multiple words, regular expresions, boolean

unknown

yes

multiple words, perl regular expressions, limit scope

unknown

yes

yes, basic boolean

yes

multiple words

yes

yes

Spam protection

yes (Antispam, ip blocking)

unknown

yes

yes (BlackListPlugin)

unknown

ip blocking, quick mass reverts

plugin

unknown

ip and word blocking

not yet

no

Usability

easy

very easy in general

easy

easy

easy

easy

sweet

easy

easy

easy

easy

Installation

medium

unknown

easy

unknown

unknown

very easy

easy

very easy

very easy

very easy

easy/medium

Feature / WikiEngine

MoinMoin

ZWiki

TikiWiki

TWiki

PHPWiki

MediaWiki

JSPWiki

UseMod

PmWiki

WikkaWiki

Trac

Server options

standalone, Twisted, fast cgi, modpy, cgi

Zope 2

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

as with any J2EE app

cgi

php 4/5 can run in safe_mode. Some sort of webserver such as Apache, or even on smaller ones

Apache/IIS + PHP

standalone, CGI, FCGI, mod_python

Configuration

easy, powerful (multiconfig for wiki farms)

unknown

Straightforward

unknown

unknown

easy (web based)

easy

easy, simple

easy

config-file

config-file, web-ui plugin

Maintenance

sweet (separated system and wiki pages)

unknown

unknown

Upgrades are clumsy and time-consuming, due to mingling of application code with data and local customizations

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

very easy

Clobber Protection

(Optionally unconditional) timed Lock, 3-way merge

none (?)

unknown

Locking

unknown

Merge

locking

none (?)

Merge

none(?)

locking

RSS Feed

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes (for special pages)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Windows(NTLM) Authentication

?

?

?

Yes?

?

?

?

?

?

?

possible with modntlm

License

GPL

GPL

GPL

?

?

GPL

?

?

GPL

?

modified BSD

Feature / WikiEngine

MoinMoin

ZWiki

TikiWiki

TWiki

PHPWiki

MediaWiki

JSPWiki

UseMod

PmWiki

WikkaWiki

Trac

Comments

General

Personal remark: I always wanted to have such a WikiEngineComparison page and already had a deeper look at WikiEngines but I am very unhappy with all of them. Such feature lists do not help much. They don't describe the wiki engines properly and they especially doesn't answer the important question: "Which is the engine that meets my needs best?" And even more important: "Which engines should I avoid?" I'll try to describe MoinMoin but as already said this is not easy... -- FlorianFesti 2004-03-11 15:59:30

The problem with these comparisons, is you have to learn and work with a wiki for some time to evaluate its qualities and weakness. Nobody can have experience with all wiki engines out there... -- NirSoffer 2004-03-12 02:11:45

Another wiki engine comparison is available at http://www.wikimatrix.org -- you can choose which wiki you want to compare in a side-by-side feature table.

Features

Group Viybel 01/12/2004 : are "Groups" refering to pages' groups or users' groups?

Ease of installation A row in the table above should be added for "ease of installation". I suppose experts can infer that from the other listed items, but a rough idea of how quickly one can set these things up would be helpful.

Ease of Hacking I've not played with any other wikis extensively, but I think "ease of hacking" should be a consideration. I've found MoinMoin to be incredibly easy to extend. Themes, macros, and actions all work together to allow you to do anything you want with the wiki. The simplicity of moin translates into simplicity of change. For the wiki I've been working on we've changed nearly everything. -- PhilipNeustrom

WYSWYG editing Could you add a feature of WYSIWYG editing (using htmlArea)? -Benjamin Hill

Looks like twiki has one - http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/KupuEditorAddOn - Benjamin Hill

No kupu http://kupu.oscom.org/ is actually a html editor based on epoz http://epoz.sourceforge.net/ which was designed as a wysiwyg editor for zope based websites. The actual addon is rather poor at best, it can only edit pages that already exist, it works by converting the html outputted by kupu into twiki markup. Essentially it is a hideous hack. Although the twiki maintainers are interested in integrating some kind of wysiwyg editor.

Ed.wiki has an integrated WYSIWYG-Editor. But you can't make it with a plugin, you have to rewrite all the wiki logic http://www.wb-giessen.de/edwiki (its german, prepared for i18n, translation needed)

Clobber Protection Added Clobber Protection - Benjamin Hill

Email notification What does email notification mean? Automated email notice of changes in certain page? If so, Mediawiki does not have it yet (as of early 2005). -- Tomos

MoinMoin

Main focuses of MoinMoin are:

To make it short: it is very easy to integrate other formats or applications into MoinMoin and "integrate" means: making them available within wiki pages and not just putting a link on them.

See MoinMoinFeatures for details.

Main flaws of MoinMoin:

Other flaws related to the developers:

Media wiki

MediaWiki - the version used at wikipedia is NOT easy. Try to add some content and you will see how hard and annoying it is. Too much options and syntax, lot of work to download a file and in-line it in your text. MoinMoin is much better - less clicks and simpler syntax. I wonder if its because of my experience with moin syntax? -- NirSoffer 2004-03-12 01:49:32

MediaWiki is certainly pretty slow despite lots of kit to support it. -- AndrewCates

I think Wikipedia is slow many times, but others are very fast - an example: http://www.tsunamihelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page -- Tomos

Wikipedia has thousands upon thousands of users... It is not possible to make any conclusions about performance without looking at server capacity and load. One thing we can say is that Wikipedia has proven it can handle huge numbers of pages and accesses. -- Erik

MediaWiki and MoinMoin have different targets. See the related comments from Brion (a media wiki developer) in MediaWiki.

For a more specific comparison, see MoinMoinVsMediaWiki.

Wacko wiki

http://wackowiki.com/WackoDocumentation

Is also a nice wiki based on php and mysql. -- Dick Stins

Nice Features, but I don't like the markup it uses.

Structured Data and Dynamic Pages

For some applications it´s very important to store and receive structured data. Here TWiki has an amazing functionality: The data can be stored using forms, and it can be retrieved in dynamic tables with sorting and filtering. see FeatureRequests/IntelligentDynamicTables. -- TobiasPolzin 2006-01-17 20:52:40

File Storage

Which is more effecient, storing wiki pages in a flat file, like JSPWiki does? or in a mysql table, like PhpWiki or XWiki do? I am concerned about the efficiently of handling big number of pages and attachments as well. Is a mysql table good enough to keep up with the growth of a wiki?

What do people think of that? -- Marion Hanz

Start by defining what you think "big" is. -- JürgenHermann 2005-11-09 18:12:12

I simply don't have a long experience with wikis to be able to state how is the efficiency by using a database or a flat file, that's why I'm posting this point here. Regarding installation and set-up though, of course a flat file storage is better, then it does not require more than just setting a page or attachment directory in some config file. A database-envolved set-up might be cumbersome for an unexperienced user, but this is not my issue. I am more interested in the performance and maintenance of the data in both cases in a growing wiki. - Marion

I just noticed that you are refering to "big number of pages", sorry, did not think, you meant that. Well, the wiki of choice will be set at a university department for the purpose of research. Employees as well as students will have an access to it. It will be an active wiki, which means, there will be a lot of contributions happening which in the end will make the wiki having to deal with a "big" number of pages and attachments, the size of both including versions are of course meant with big number. - Marion

Is big 1000, 10000 or 100000 pages?

Do you actually have something to say for this topic, or you are just trying to get an attention?? - Marion

I tried to answer your question, after getting a precise one. I stop now.

What should that mean? are you mad? Thank you anyway for having made an effort, although no one saw something from you. Things do not stop when you stop though...

As JürgenHermann asks I am interested in the answer too about how much pages we are speaking here? I don't know why it is so difficult to tell I like to use a wiki server which is able to handle about 100000 different pages. Whatever you tell us it is very easy for one of us having already a wiki to create such an amount of pages if we don't have them already. Afterwards we could probably tell something about maintanace, performance. -- ReimarBauer 2005-11-11 10:04:54

Ok, since it is for research purposes, I'd like the wiki to be able to handle a number of 200000 different pages. Which kind of wiki is better for maintanace and performance? Marion

I have organized our wiki by a farm configuration. So each group has it's own wiki instance with for example a separated search engine, separated title index, separated acls. Do you ask here for a similiar installation or do you want a TitleIndex over 200000 pages? I like to tell some more about the background I was asking this. If you set up one wiki for all institutes then you need a very good acl ruleset to destinguish who is able to give someone rights to edit a page. Probably the institutes people do have some pages which should not be seen in public and they have some pages which a subset of their members should edit and all others could only read. And some other pages could be edited by all members. By using one wiki for several institutes you have to add a prefix to a lot of pages. e.g. institute_FrontPage, institute_*templates. It could be difficult to find something useful by search. I believe it is more difficult to use one wiki instead of a farm. -- ReimarBauer 2005-11-11 22:25:08

See also

  1. Just an impression of my test-installation. (1)

WikiEngineComparison (last edited 2009-12-25 07:15:44 by localhost)