Open Source Wiki Software
A wiki is only as good as the odds that someone finds the right page months later and still trusts it, which is why search quality and a clear revision history matter more than whatever editor sits on top. Pages nobody can find get rewritten from scratch, and pages nobody trusts get quietly ignored, and both failures turn a knowledge base into dead weight. The open source options here keep every page as versioned content you host yourself, with full history and diffs that show who changed what and when. When the wiki lives on your own server in formats you can export, the knowledge stays searchable, accountable, and portable instead of trapped inside one vendor's hosted instance.
AppFlowy
Open source AI workspace for projects, wikis, and teams with self-hosting and data control
AFFiNE
Local-first open-source workspace that merges docs, whiteboards, tables, and AI as a Notion and Miro alternative
SiYuan
Privacy-first personal knowledge management with Markdown WYSIWYG, block references, and Docker hosting
Outline
Team knowledge base and wiki with realtime collaboration, Markdown compatibility, and self-hosting documentation
Trilium Notes
Hierarchical note-taking app for large personal knowledge bases, with local use and self-hosted sync
Wiki.js
Open source wiki software with Markdown editing, Git-backed storage, and multi-provider authentication
Docmost
Open-source collaborative wiki and documentation software with real-time editing, spaces, and permissions
BookStack
Self-hosted wiki for organizing documentation and information in a simple, opinionated interface
Gollum
A Git-based wiki with local editing, version history, and support for many markup formats
Our picks
Pick by audience and storage model: a collaborative team base, a structured docs site, Git-backed pages, or a plain-text engine.
Best for team knowledge bases: Outline Outline gives a team one fast home for documentation, with a Markdown editor, real-time collaboration, comments, and search that returns results in milliseconds. Permissions, user groups, guest users, and public links control access, and an open API connects Slack, Figma, and more. Run it on your own server or use the hosted service.
Simplest structured team wiki: BookStack BookStack organizes content into an opinionated hierarchy of Shelves, Books, Chapters, and Pages, so documentation has a clear shape from day one. Pages support WYSIWYG and Markdown editing, full-text search, inline diagrams, and revisions, and authentication covers SAML, LDAP, and OIDC with multi-factor. A good first wiki for teams that want structure without complex setup.
Git-backed docs with rich auth: Wiki.js Wiki.js writes pages in Markdown or a visual editor and can store them in Git, syncing to GitHub or GitLab alongside local or cloud backups. It supports LDAP, SAML, OAuth, and 2FA with granular page rules, and search can run on Elasticsearch. Choose it for documentation-as-code plus enterprise authentication in one app.
Zero-database plain-text wiki: DokuWiki DokuWiki stores every page as a plain text file with no database, so version control, backups, and external tooling work directly against the content. Pages group into namespaces with revision history, access controls, and a large plugin ecosystem. A dependable, low-maintenance choice that stays easy to back up and move.
What keeps a wiki alive instead of abandoned
A wiki quietly dies when people stop believing a page is current, so the first decision is not which editor you like but who the wiki serves and how its pages are stored. Team knowledge bases like Outline, Docmost, BookStack, and XWiki lean on real-time editing, spaces, and permissions for mixed groups. File and Git-backed wikis such as DokuWiki, Gollum, and Otter Wiki keep pages as plain text or Markdown in a repository, which makes diffs, backups, and bulk edits trivial for technical teams. MediaWiki sits apart as the battle-tested engine behind Wikipedia, built for large public wikis and heavy revision histories.
Storage format decides how painful the wiki is to trust and eventually leave. Plain-text and Git-backed tools give you readable history and let standard version-control and backup tooling work directly against the content, with no export step. Database-backed wikis usually offer richer permissions and faster editing for nontechnical contributors, at the cost of a real export path you should test before committing years of pages. If the wiki is really for one person, the local-first knowledge bases - SiYuan, Trilium Notes, AppFlowy, AFFiNE, Anytype, and TiddlyWiki - keep everything on your own disk.
Then judge the two things that make a large wiki usable: search and access. Confirm that search indexes page bodies and attachments, not just titles, because weak search breeds duplicate pages when people assume missing results mean missing knowledge. For teams, check that authentication maps to the identity groups you already run - Wiki.js supports LDAP, SAML, and OAuth, while BookStack and Docmost offer SAML, LDAP, or OIDC with multi-factor - so permissions follow people instead of being rebuilt by hand.
Related categories
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose a team wiki or a personal knowledge base?+
They solve different problems. Team wikis like Outline, Docmost, BookStack, and Wiki.js focus on shared spaces, permissions, and many editors working in the same content. Personal knowledge bases such as SiYuan, Trilium Notes, and Anytype are built for one person's notes, links, and structure, often local-first with no server to run. Picking a team tool for solo use means operating infrastructure you do not need, and the reverse leaves a team without permissions.
What is the practical difference between a file-based and a database-backed wiki?+
File-based wikis like DokuWiki, Gollum, and Otter Wiki store each page as a text or Markdown file, so version control, backups, and external scripts work directly on the content with no export. Database-backed wikis such as MediaWiki, XWiki, and BookStack usually offer richer permissions and a smoother editor for nontechnical users, but your content lives behind the application. Choose by whether your wiki is closer to docs-as-code or a mixed-contributor knowledge base.
Which of these keep full page history and diffs?+
All serious wikis track revisions, but the mechanism differs. Gollum, Otter Wiki, and Wiki.js store pages in Git, so history and diffs come straight from the repository and you can even clone the content. MediaWiki keeps a full revision record behind every page, and BookStack tracks page revisions in its database. If auditability matters, favor the Git-backed tools, since their history is portable and readable outside the app.
Do open source wikis support SSO and directory groups?+
Many do, but the details vary and group mapping is the part to verify. Wiki.js supports LDAP, SAML, OAuth, and 2FA; BookStack offers SAML, LDAP, and OIDC with built-in multi-factor; and Docmost provides SSO and MFA. The goal is for permissions to follow the identity groups you already maintain rather than being rebuilt inside the wiki, so also check how deactivated accounts and guest access behave.
Can I run one of these as a public documentation site?+
Yes, several are built for published content. Outline offers public sharing links, BookStack and MediaWiki serve public knowledge bases well, and AppFlowy can publish pages as documentation websites. For public instances, weigh spam controls, per-page or namespace permissions, and how cleanly anonymous readers are separated from editors. A wiki that is comfortable internally may need tighter access rules once it faces the open internet.
How much does search quality matter as the wiki grows?+
It becomes critical. Once a wiki passes a few hundred pages, poor search causes duplicate content because people assume a missing result means the knowledge is not there. Check that search covers page bodies, attachments, and tags, not just titles. Wiki.js can back search with Elasticsearch, and Outline is built around fast full-text search. Test with the real names and internal jargon your team uses, not a clean demo page.
What is the safest way to migrate an existing wiki?+
Export pages, attachments, and user metadata from the current system, then run a small test import before moving everything. Expect cleanup around links, macros, embedded media, and page hierarchy, and preserve old URLs with redirects because links live on in tickets and chat. Freeze edits during the final cutover so history does not split. Tools that store content as Markdown or in Git make the whole move easier to verify.