Foswiki vs. PmWiki vs. TiddlyWiki vs. PhpWiki

General Features Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Version
2.1.10
2.5.5
5.1.21
phpwiki-1.3.14
Last Release Date
2025-12-18 (24 days ago)
2026-01-10 (1 day ago)
2019-07-25 (6 years ago)
2007-07-01 (18 years ago)
Last Update here
2025-12-18 (24 days ago)
2026-01-10 (1 day ago)
2019-11-20 (6 years ago)
2009-04-03 (16 years ago)
Author
Foswiki Community
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
Jeremy Ruston, TiddlyWiki community
Steve Wainstead, Jeff Dairiki, Reini Urban, Carsten Klapp, Marc-Etienne Vargenau
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
GPL2+
BSD
GPL
Programming Language
Perl
PHP
HTML, JavaScript
PHP
Data Storage
Files, RCS
Files
Files
Database, Files, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
$0
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Enterprise, Corporate, Business, Intranets, Personal use, Community building, Educational, Intranet, Extranet
All
Individuals, private, small groups
Any
System Requirements Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Operating System
Linux, Windows, OS-X and others
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Any
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Root Access
No
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.
Not required (optional backends available)
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support
Other Requirements
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
none
A common browser
various opt. helpers
Datastorage Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Text Files
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
MySQL
No
Plugin
No
Yes
PostgreSQL
No
No
No
Yes
Oracle
No
No
No
Yes
SQLite
No
Plugin
No
Yes
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
Yes
RCS
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Other
caching of content into database using plugins
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
Data self contained in html file OR as individual data files
gdbm, cvs, MSSQL, ... (ADODB, PearDB)
Security/Anti-Spam Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
No
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.
optional extensions available
db, session, pop, imap, ldap, file, webserver
Host Blocking
Plugin
Optional
No
No
Mail Encryption
Yes
Optional
No
No
nofollow
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Blacklist
Plugin
Optional
No
Yes
CAPTCHA
Plugin
Plugin
No
Yes
Delayed Indexing
Plugin
Optional
Unknown
No
Development/Support Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#phpwiki
Stars on GitHub
118 ⭐
N/A
8501 ⭐
N/A
Common Features Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
No
Optional
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
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
4
German, English, French, Japanese
9
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese Traditional
Email notification
Yes
Optional
Unknown
Yes
Comments
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Plugin
Plugin
Categories
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
None
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
No
Yes
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Structured Data
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Links Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
SisterWiki
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Redirects
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Features Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
HTML Tags
All
Plugin
Optional
Some
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
No
Markdown Support
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
Textile Support
Plugin
No
No
No
BBCode Support
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Emoticon Images
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
No
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
Plugin
Footnotes
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Quoting
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
Scripting
JavaScript; Topic Markup Language
MarkupExpressions (core, many add-ons). PageLists with templates (core structured data scripting). WikiSh (plugin), Data forms (optional)
JavaScript
plugins, templates, PHP
Content Includes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Usability Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Section Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Toolbar
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Patch
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Statistics Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Optional
Yes
Yes
Orphaned Pages
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Yes
Most/Least Popular
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Recent Visitors
Plugin
Plugin
No
Yes
Analysis
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Output Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print View
Print CSS
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Yes
Optional
Plugin
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Yes
Optional
Plugin
No
Abbreviations
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
No
Auto-TOC
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
XML export
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
No
PDF Export
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Office Export
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Optional
Plugin
Yes
Media Revisions
Yes
Optional
No
Yes
Embedded Flash
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Embedded Video
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Image Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
SVG Editing
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
MindMap Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
No
Media Search
Contents
Filenames only
No
No
Extras Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Image Galleries
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Presentations
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Forums
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Blogs
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Ticket System
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
No
Chat
No
No
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples Foswiki PmWiki TiddlyWiki PhpWiki
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]]
WikiWord (CamelCase)
[[link]]
[[label|link]]
WikiWord or [somelink]
[ desc | pagename ]
External Link
External Link
http://foswiki.org/ autolink
[[http://foswiki.org/][label]]
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
http://www.example.com
[[label|http://www.example.com]]
http://someserver/someurl
[ desc | exturl ]
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
!!!! Level 4
!!!!! Level 5
!!!Headline1
!!Headline2
!Headline3
Bold Format
*bold*
'''bold'''
''bold''
*bold* or
<strong>bold</strong>
Italics Format
_italic_
''italic''
//italic//
_italics_ or 
or
<em>italics</em>
Underline Format
<u>underline</u>
{+underlined+}
__underline__
<u>underlined</u>
Monospace Format
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
@@monospace@@
{{{monospaced}}}
<tt>monospace</tt>
<code>code</code>
<pre>preformatted</pre>
<verbatim>
unparsed text</verbatim>


Strikethrough Format
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
{-strikethrough-}
--strikethrough--
<strike>striked through</strike>
Superscript Format
<sup>superscript</sup>
'^superscript^'
^^superscript^^
<sup>above</sup>
Subscript Format
<sub>subscript</sub>
'_subscript_'
~~subscript~~
<sub>below</sub>
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
[img[local.jpg]]
[img[http://foo.bar/foo.jpg]]
[ http://foo.org/1.jpg size=30%] 
external image
[Upload:view.jpg align=right size=50x40] 
view uploaded image
[Upload:view.jpg | http://server/external-linkjpg ] 
view and link to another image
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
using custom classes, e.g.
{{right{
text
}}}
<?plugin RawHtml <span align="right"> ?>right<?plugin RawHtml </span> ?>
or <div align="right"> right </div>

Text Indentation
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
:indent

> quote

<<<
blockquote
<<<
;: left indent
;;: more left indent

or 
paragraph
and another level 
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
* list
or
- list
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
# list
Definition Lists
$ Term: Definition
: term : definition
; term
: description
Term:<def>
def
Horizontal Rule
---
----
----
----
remove Foswiki remove PmWiki remove TiddlyWiki remove PhpWiki