Foswiki vs. ikiwiki vs. LynxWiki

General Features Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Version
2.1.11
2.67
1.3.0.0
Last Release Date
2026-03-15 (3 months ago)
2008-10-17 (17 years ago)
2013-08-02 (12 years ago)
Last Update here
2026-03-15 (3 months ago)
2008-10-28 (17 years ago)
2013-08-29 (12 years ago)
Author
Foswiki Community
Joey Hess and the ikiwiki community
J.W. Davidson
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
GPL
Apache License 2.0
Programming Language
Perl
Perl
C#
Data Storage
Files, RCS
Files, RCS
Database, Files
License Cost/ Fee
$0
0
$0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Enterprise, Corporate, Business, Intranets, Personal use, Community building, Educational, Intranet, Extranet
Anyone
small organization to enterprise
System Requirements Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Operating System
Linux, Windows, OS-X and others
Any
Windows
Root Access
No
No
Yes
Webserver
Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, or any other supporting (F)CGI
Any, or none
IIS7 or IIS8
Other Requirements
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
IronPython
Datastorage Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Text Files
Yes
Yes
Yes
MySQL
No
No
No
PostgreSQL
No
No
No
Oracle
No
No
No
SQLite
No
No
Yes
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
RCS
Yes
Yes
No
Other
caching of content into database using plugins
MS SQL, MS SQL Express
Security/Anti-Spam Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
Built-in, HTTP auth, OpenID; extensible via plugins
MS Membership and Roles
Host Blocking
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Mail Encryption
Yes
Yes
No
nofollow
Yes
No
No
Blacklist
Plugin
Yes
Yes
CAPTCHA
Plugin
No
Yes
Delayed Indexing
Plugin
No
No
Development/Support Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
No
No
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
118 ⭐
N/A
N/A
Common Features Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
No
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
No
Special Features Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
No
Yes
No
Interface Languages
22
Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
1
English
1
English
Email notification
Yes
Yes
No
Comments
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Discussion Pages
Categories
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
Yes
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
None
Concurrent Editing
No
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Plugin
Yes
No
Structured Data
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Links Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Plugin
Plugin
No
SisterWiki
Plugin
Plugin
No
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Page Redirects
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Syntax Features Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
HTML Tags
All
Optional
None
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Plugin
No
No
Markdown Support
Plugin
Yes
No
Textile Support
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
BBCode Support
Plugin
No
No
Emoticon Images
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Footnotes
Plugin
No
Yes
Quoting
Yes
Yes
No
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
No
FAQ Tags
Yes
Yes
Yes
Scripting
JavaScript; Topic Markup Language
safe subset of HTML::Template supported via template plugin
IronPython
Content Includes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Usability Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Section Editing
Plugin
No
No
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
No
Double-Click Edit
Plugin
No
No
Toolbar
Plugin
No
No
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
No
No
Access Keys
Yes
No
No
Auto Signature
Yes
No
No
Statistics Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Plugin
No
Orphaned Pages
Plugin
Plugin
No
Most/Least Popular
Yes
No
No
Recent Visitors
Plugin
No
No
Analysis
Yes
No
No
Output Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print CSS
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
No
RSS Feeds
Yes
Plugin
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Abbreviations
Plugin
No
No
Auto-TOC
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
No
HTML Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
XML export
Plugin
No
No
PDF Export
Plugin
No
No
Office Export
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Embedded Flash
Plugin
Optional
No
Embedded Video
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Image Editing
Plugin
No
No
SVG Editing
Plugin
No
No
MindMap Editing
Plugin
No
No
Media Search
Contents
Filenames only
Contents
Extras Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
No
Image Galleries
Plugin
Plugin
No
Presentations
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Forums
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Blogs
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Ticket System
Plugin
Yes
No
Chat
No
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples Foswiki ikiwiki LynxWiki
Internal Link
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
[[internal]]
CamelCase
"display text":DisplayText
External Link
External Link
http://foswiki.org/ autolink
[[http://foswiki.org/][label]]
[link text](http://example.org)
http://www.wikimatrix.org
"Wiki Matrix":http://www.wikimatrix.org
"this is a link (optional tooltip)":http://www.microsoft.com
Headlines
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
Two syntaxes:

# heading 1
## heading 2
### heading 3

heading 1
=========

heading 2
---------
!!Header 2
!!!Header 3
!!!!!!Header 6
Bold Format
*bold*
**bold**
__bold__
*bold*
'''bold'''
Italics Format
_italic_
*emphasized*
_emphasized_
_italics_
Underline Format
<u>underline</u>
via HTML: <u>underlined</u>
+underlined+
Monospace Format
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
`inline monospace`

indented block of
monospaced text

tab-indented
block
[indent single space]
@mono space on single line@
@@ start on multiline with end @@
Strikethrough Format
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
via HTML: <del>deleted</del>
-strikethrough-
Superscript Format
<sup>superscript</sup>
via HTML: x<sup>2</sup>
superscript^234^
Subscript Format
<sub>subscript</sub>
via HTML: a<sub>1</sub>
water: H~2~O
Images
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
%IMAGE{"image.png"}%
![alt text](internal/image)
![alt text](http://example.org/external/image)
[image:/LynxWiki/Attachments/upload/images/IMG_2002.jpg]
http://www.example.org/someimage.jpg
Aligning Text
| left |   center   |   right |
or HTML
or CSS
N/A
Text Indentation
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
N/A
Bulleted Lists
* Item 1
* Item 1.1
* Item 2
* item 1
* item 2
* item 2.1
* item 2.2
* first bullet (8 spaces)
* first sub item bullet
* second item
Numbered Lists
1. Item 1
a. Item 1.a
1. Item 2
1. item 1
2. item 2
1. item 1.1
42. the value doesn't matter
1. any value works
1. first numbered item
1. second item
Definition Lists
$ Term: Definition
via HTML:
<dl>
<dt>term</dt>
<dd>definition</dd>
</dl>
N/A
Horizontal Rule
---
---
***
___
------------------
Any number > 3
- - - - - - - - - -
spaces don't matter
----
remove Foswiki remove ikiwiki remove LynxWiki