Foswiki vs. PmWiki vs. PukiWiki

General Features Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Version
2.1.11
2.5.8
1.5.1
Last Release Date
2026-03-15 (17 days ago)
2026-03-09 (23 days ago)
2016-03-07 (10 years ago)
Last Update here
2026-03-15 (17 days ago)
2026-03-09 (23 days ago)
2016-03-23 (10 years ago)
Author
Foswiki Community
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
PukiWiki Development Team
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
GPL2+
GPL version 2 or (at your option) any later version
Programming Language
Perl
PHP
PHP
Data Storage
Files, RCS
Files
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
All
One theme, one PukiWiki
System Requirements Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Operating System
Linux, Windows, OS-X and others
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
OS independent
Root Access
No
No
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, IIS, anything with PHP support
Other Requirements
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
none
tar with "-p" option, or unzip for install. "mbstring" PHP extension for multi-bite support. backup feature wants 'zip' PHP extension.
Datastorage Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Text Files
Yes
Yes
Yes
MySQL
No
Plugin
No
PostgreSQL
No
No
No
Oracle
No
No
No
SQLite
No
Plugin
No
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
RCS
Yes
Plugin
No
Other
caching of content into database using plugins
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
zip-compressed text files for backup (with "zip" PHP extension)
Security/Anti-Spam Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
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.
LDIF strings compatible with OpenLDAP, LDAP
Host Blocking
Plugin
Optional
Patch
Mail Encryption
Yes
Optional
No
nofollow
Yes
Yes
Yes
Blacklist
Plugin
Optional
Patch
CAPTCHA
Plugin
Plugin
No
Delayed Indexing
Plugin
Optional
No
Development/Support Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#pukiwiki
Stars on GitHub
118 ⭐
N/A
N/A
Common Features Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
Yes
No
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
No
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Restricted by Number
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
To current
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
No
Optional
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
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
5
German, English, Japanese, Korean, Twi
Email notification
Yes
Optional
Yes
Comments
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Plugin
Categories
Plugin
Yes
No
Namespaces
Yes
Yes
No
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Detection
Concurrent Editing
No
Yes
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Plugin
Yes
No
Structured Data
Yes
Yes
No
Links Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Plugin
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
Plugin
Plugin
No
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Plugin
Yes
Patch
Page Redirects
Plugin
Yes
No
Syntax Features Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
HTML Tags
All
Plugin
Plugin
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
complex
CREOLE support
Plugin
Optional
No
Markdown Support
Plugin
Plugin
No
Textile Support
Plugin
No
No
BBCode Support
Plugin
Plugin
No
Emoticon Images
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
Footnotes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Quoting
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Yes
Yes
No
Scripting
JavaScript; Topic Markup Language
MarkupExpressions (core, many add-ons). PageLists with templates (core structured data scripting). WikiSh (plugin), Data forms (optional)
plugins(PHP), skins(PHP), CSSes(PHP,CSS)
Content Includes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Usability Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Section Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Patch
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Plugin
Plugin
No
Toolbar
Plugin
Optional
Patch
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
Plugin
No
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
Yes
Yes
No
Statistics Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Optional
Plugin
Orphaned Pages
Plugin
Optional
No
Most/Least Popular
Yes
No
Plugin
Recent Visitors
Plugin
Plugin
No
Analysis
Yes
Plugin
No
Output Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print View
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Yes
Optional
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Yes
Optional
Plugin
ATOM Feeds
Yes
Optional
Plugin
Abbreviations
Plugin
Plugin
No
Auto-TOC
Yes
Optional
Plugin
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Plugin
HTML Export
Yes
Plugin
No
XML export
Plugin
Plugin
No
PDF Export
Plugin
Plugin
No
Office Export
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Media and Files Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Optional
Plugin
Media Revisions
Yes
Optional
No
Embedded Flash
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Embedded Video
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Image Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
SVG Editing
Plugin
Plugin
No
MindMap Editing
Plugin
Plugin
No
Media Search
Contents
Filenames only
No
Extras Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Image Galleries
Plugin
Plugin
No
Presentations
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Forums
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Blogs
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Ticket System
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Chat
No
No
Unknown
Syntax Examples Foswiki PmWiki PukiWiki
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]]
PageNameAsWikiName
[[PageName]]
[[link text>PageName]]
External Link
External Link
http://foswiki.org/ autolink
[[http://foswiki.org/][label]]
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
http://....
[[link text>http://....]]
[[interwiki:keyphrase]]
[[link text>interwiki:keyphrase]]
Headlines
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
! Level 1
!!#anchor Level 2
!!! Level 3
* Level 1
** Level 2
*** Level 3
Bold Format
*bold*
'''bold'''
''bold''
Italics Format
_italic_
''italic''
'''italic'''
Underline Format
<u>underline</u>
{+underlined+}
%%%underlined%%%
Monospace Format
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
@@monospace@@
N/A
Strikethrough Format
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
{-strikethrough-}
%%strikethrough%%
Superscript Format
<sup>superscript</sup>
'^superscript^'
N/A
Subscript Format
<sub>subscript</sub>
'_subscript_'
N/A
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
#ref(pagename/filename[,option])
&ref(pagename/filename[,option]);
&ref(http://foo.bar/foo.jpg[,option]);
http://foo.bar/foo.jpg
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:center
RIGHT:right
LEFT:left
Text Indentation
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
N/A
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
- Item 1
-- Item 1.1
- Item 2
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
+ Item 1
++ Item 1.1
+ Item 2
Definition Lists
$ Term: Definition
: term : definition
:term|definition
Horizontal Rule
---
----
--------------------
remove Foswiki remove PmWiki remove PukiWiki