Foswiki vs. PmWiki vs. alphawiki vs. PageWork

General Features Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Version
2.1.11
2.7.4
v.20160608
0.4.8
Last Release Date
2026-03-15 (5 months ago)
2026-07-31 (22 days ago)
2016-08-06 (10 years ago)
2010-07-20 (16 years ago)
Last Update here
2026-03-15 (5 months ago)
2026-07-31 (22 days ago)
2016-09-10 (9 years ago)
2010-10-23 (15 years ago)
Author
Foswiki Community
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
marty alain
Pitt Murmann
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
GPL2+
GNU-GPL
GPLv3
Programming Language
Perl
PHP
PHP+Javascript
PHP
Data Storage
Files, RCS
Files
Files
Database, Files
License Cost/ Fee
$0
0
0
none
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Enterprise, Corporate, Business, Intranets, Personal use, Community building, Educational, Intranet, Extranet
All
private users, small teams
Medium-sized sites
System Requirements Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Operating System
Linux, Windows, OS-X and others
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
probably every OS
Any
Root Access
No
No
Yes
No
Webserver
Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, or any other supporting (F)CGI
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support. Can also be run with PHP's built-in webserver.
Apache with PHP support
Any
Other Requirements
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
none
DBA with bdb or qdbm support
Datastorage Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Text Files
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
MySQL
No
Plugin
No
No
PostgreSQL
No
No
No
No
Oracle
No
No
No
No
SQLite
No
Plugin
No
Patch
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
Yes
RCS
Yes
Plugin
No
No
Other
caching of content into database using plugins
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
None
Security/Anti-Spam Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
Internal: per page, per group, per user, per user group. External: .htpasswd, LDAP, Active Directory. Plugins: Mailman, forums w/MySQL, oAuth, custom possible.
No
Proprietary
Host Blocking
Plugin
Optional
No
No
Mail Encryption
Yes
Optional
No
No
nofollow
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Blacklist
Plugin
Optional
No
No
CAPTCHA
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Delayed Indexing
Plugin
Optional
No
Yes
Development/Support Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
118 ⭐
N/A
N/A
N/A
Common Features Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
No
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
No
Optional
Unknown
Optional
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
38
Arabic, Bulgarian, Breton, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Esperanto, Spanish, Persian, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Latvian, Lettish, Macedonian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Albanian, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
1
English
2
German, English
Email notification
Yes
Optional
No
No
Comments
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Discussion Pages
Discussion Pages
Categories
Plugin
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Detection
Concurrent Editing
No
Yes
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Structured Data
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Links Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
CamelCase
Yes
Optional
No
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
InterWiki
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
SisterWiki
Plugin
Plugin
No
Optional
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Plugin
Yes
No
No
Page Redirects
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Syntax Features Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
HTML Tags
All
Plugin
Optional
All
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple
CREOLE support
Plugin
Optional
No
No
Markdown Support
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Textile Support
Plugin
No
No
No
BBCode Support
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Emoticon Images
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Optional
No
Yes
Footnotes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Quoting
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
FAQ Tags
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Scripting
JavaScript; Topic Markup Language
MarkupExpressions (core, many add-ons). PageLists with templates (core structured data scripting). WikiSh (plugin), Data forms (optional)
lambdatalk, lambdalisp,javascript
Content Includes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
Plugin
No
Yes
Usability Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Section Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Toolbar
Plugin
Optional
No
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Auto Signature
Yes
Yes
Optional
No
Statistics Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Optional
No
Yes
Orphaned Pages
Plugin
Optional
No
Yes
Most/Least Popular
Yes
No
No
No
Recent Visitors
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
Analysis
Yes
Plugin
No
No
Output Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print View
Print CSS
Print View
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
RSS Feeds
Yes
Optional
No
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Yes
Optional
No
Yes
Abbreviations
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Auto-TOC
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Optional
Plugin
HTML Export
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
XML export
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
PDF Export
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Office Export
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
File Attachments
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
Yes
Optional
No
Yes
Embedded Flash
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Embedded Video
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Image Editing
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
SVG Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
MindMap Editing
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Media Search
Contents
Filenames only
No
Keywords
Extras Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
Image Galleries
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Presentations
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Forums
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Blogs
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
Ticket System
Plugin
Plugin
No
Plugin
Chat
No
No
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki PageWork
Internal Link
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
[[page name]]
[[page name | link text]]
[[link text -> page name]]
[[#anchor]]
[[#anchor|link to anchor]]
[[page name #anchor]]
1) standard syntax :
{a {@ href="?view=pixar"}pixar}
2) alternate wiki form :
[[pixar]]
[[link]]
[[link|alternate text]]
External Link
External Link
http://foswiki.org/ autolink
[[http://foswiki.org/][label]]
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
1) standard syntax :
{a {@ href="http://www.pixar.com/"}pixar}
2) alternate wiki form :
[[pixar|http://www.pixar.com/]]
http://www.wikimatrix.org/
Headlines
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
! Level 1
!!#anchor Level 2
!!! Level 3
1) standard syntax :
{h1 TITLE} from 1 to 6
2) alternate form :
_h1 TITLE (until end of line)
= L1 =
== L2 ==
=== L3 ===
==== L4 ====
===== L5 =====

= L1
== L2
=== L3
==== L4
===== L5
Bold Format
*bold*
'''bold'''
{b I am bold}
This is '''bold''' (or rather, strong).
This is **bold**, too.
Italics Format
_italic_
''italic''
{i I am italic}
This is in ''italics'' (or rather, emphasized).
This is in //italics//, too.
Underline Format
<u>underline</u>
{+underlined+}
{u I am underline}
This is __underlined__.
Monospace Format
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
@@monospace@@
{pre I am monospace and preformated}
This is %%monospaced%%.
Strikethrough Format
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
{-strikethrough-}
{del I am line-through}
This is --not-- important.
Superscript Format
<sup>superscript</sup>
'^superscript^'
E = mc{sup 2}
a^^2^^ = b^^2^^ + c^^2^^
Subscript Format
<sub>subscript</sub>
'_subscript_'
Vector low indiced : V{sub i} 
Vector high indiced: V{sup i}
Tensor : T{sub i}{sup j}
p^^^n^^^ := {x^^^n^^^, y^^^n^^^, y^^^n^^^}
Images
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
%IMAGE{"image.png"}%
https://foo.bar/foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg"alt/title text" | Caption
1) static image, simple :
{img {@ src="data/image.jpg"}}

2) static image, complete :
{img 
{@ src="data/image.jpg"  
height="200"
title="infotext"
}}

3) click_enlarging image :
{show 
{@ src="data/image.jpg"
height="200" 
width="400" 
title="infotext"
}}
{{image|image_file.suffix}}
{{image|image_file.suffix|alternate text}}
{{figure|image_file.suffix}}
{{figure|image_file.suffix|caption text}}
Aligning Text
| left |   center   |   right |
or HTML
or CSS
%center% centered text
%right% right aligned
%lfloat% left floating text
%rfloat% right floating text
%rframe% right floating frame
%lframe% left floating frame
{center I am centered}
{{p|align:left|text of paragraph}}
{{p|align:center|text of paragraph}}
{{p|align:right|text of paragraph}}
Text Indentation
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
{p I am an indented paragraph.}
> L1 quote
>> L2 quote
Bulleted Lists
* Item 1
* Item 1.1
* Item 2
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
alternatively, indented:
* item 1
* item 1.1
* item 2
1) standard :
{ul
{li item 1}
{li item 2}
}

2) alternative :
_ul item 1
_ul item 2
* one
* two
** two alpha
** two beta
* three
Numbered Lists
1. Item 1
a. Item 1.a
1. Item 2
# Item 1
## Item 1.1
# Item 2
alternatively, indented:
# Item 1
# Item 1.1
# Item 2
1) standard :
{ol
{li item 1}
{li item 2}
}

2) alternative :
_ol item 1
_ol item 2
# one
# two
## two alpha
## two beta
# three
Definition Lists
$ Term: Definition
: term : definition
{dl
{dt one} 
{dd definition 1}
{dt two} 
{dd definition 2}
}
: term : definition
Horizontal Rule
---
----
{hr}
---
remove Foswiki remove PmWiki remove alphawiki remove PageWork