Foswiki vs. ProntoWiki vs. TWiki

General Features Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Version
2.1.11
1.0.1
TWiki-6.1.0
Last Release Date
2026-03-15 (3 months ago)
2026-06-20 (today)
2018-07-16 (7 years ago)
Last Update here
2026-03-15 (3 months ago)
2006-08-23 (19 years ago)
2019-07-19 (6 years ago)
Author
Foswiki Community
Clay Alberty
Peter Thoeny, TWiki community
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
BSD
GPL
Programming Language
Perl
C#
Perl, JavaScript
Data Storage
Files, RCS
Database
Files, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
$0
Free
N/A
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Enterprise, Corporate, Business, Intranets, Personal use, Community building, Educational, Intranet, Extranet
Large enterprise; small to medium businesses
System Requirements Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Operating System
Linux, Windows, OS-X and others
Windows
Linux, Windows, OS-X and other
Root Access
No
No
No
Webserver
Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, or any other supporting (F)CGI
IIS 5+
Almost any webserver, typically Apache and Ngnix
Other Requirements
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
.NET framework v2.0 or higher
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
Datastorage Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Text Files
Yes
Unknown
Yes
MySQL
No
Unknown
No
PostgreSQL
No
Unknown
No
Oracle
No
Unknown
No
SQLite
No
Unknown
No
BerkeleyDB
No
Unknown
No
RCS
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Other
caching of content into database using plugins
SQLExpress or SQL 2000 or SQL 2005
RcsLite Perl library for version control without external RCS; backend API for other storage
Security/Anti-Spam Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
No
Yes
Authentication Backends
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
.NET Membership platform
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
Host Blocking
Plugin
No
Plugin
Mail Encryption
Yes
No
Yes
nofollow
Yes
No
Plugin
Blacklist
Plugin
No
Plugin
CAPTCHA
Plugin
No
Plugin
Delayed Indexing
Plugin
No
Plugin
Development/Support Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
No
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
118 ⭐
N/A
N/A
Common Features Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
No
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
No
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
No
Yes
Special Features Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
No
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
No
Unknown
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
19
Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
Email notification
Yes
No
Yes
Comments
Plugin
No
Threaded
Categories
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
No
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
No
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Plugin
Unknown
Optional
Structured Data
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Links Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
No
Yes
InterWiki
Plugin
No
Yes
SisterWiki
Plugin
No
Plugin
Image Links
Yes
Optional
Yes
Windows Shares
Plugin
No
Plugin
Page Redirects
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Syntax Features Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
HTML Tags
All
Some
All
Math formulas
Plugin
No
Plugin
Tables
simple + complex
none
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Plugin
Unknown
No
Markdown Support
Plugin
Unknown
No
Textile Support
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
BBCode Support
Plugin
Unknown
No
Emoticon Images
Plugin
No
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
No
Plugin
Footnotes
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
Quoting
Yes
Optional
Yes
Internal Comments
Yes
No
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Yes
No
Yes
Scripting
JavaScript; Topic Markup Language
TWiki Markup Language, TWiki variables, JavaScript, extensive API
Content Includes
Yes
No
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
No
Yes
Usability Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Section Editing
Plugin
No
Plugin
Page Templates
Yes
No
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Plugin
No
Plugin
Toolbar
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
No
Yes
Access Keys
Yes
No
Yes
Auto Signature
Yes
No
Yes
Statistics Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
No
No
Orphaned Pages
Plugin
No
Plugin
Most/Least Popular
Yes
Optional
Yes
Recent Visitors
Plugin
No
Plugin
Analysis
Yes
No
Yes
Output Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print View
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Yes
No
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Yes
No
Yes
Abbreviations
Plugin
No
Plugin
Auto-TOC
Yes
No
Yes
Raw Export
Yes
No
Yes
HTML Export
Yes
No
Yes
XML export
Plugin
No
Plugin
PDF Export
Plugin
No
Plugin
Office Export
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
Yes
No
Yes
Embedded Flash
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Embedded Video
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Image Editing
Plugin
No
Plugin
SVG Editing
Plugin
No
Plugin
MindMap Editing
Plugin
No
Plugin
Media Search
Contents
Contents
Extras Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Image Galleries
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Presentations
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Forums
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Blogs
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Ticket System
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Chat
No
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples Foswiki ProntoWiki TWiki
Internal Link
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
[pagename]
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
External Link
External Link
http://foswiki.org/ autolink
[[http://foswiki.org/][label]]
{title|url}
http://twiki.org/ autolink
[[http://twiki.org/][label]]
Headlines
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
!, !!, !!!
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
Bold Format
*bold*
**bold**
*bold*
Italics Format
_italic_
''italics''
_italic_
Underline Format
<u>underline</u>
__under__
<u>underline</u>
Monospace Format
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
Strikethrough Format
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
<<strike>> (using custom tags)
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
Superscript Format
<sup>superscript</sup>
<<super>> (using custom tags)
<sup>superscript</sup>
Subscript Format
<sub>subscript</sub>
<<sub>> (using custom tags)
<sub>subscript</sub>
Images
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
%IMAGE{"image.png"}%
{guid} - this is displayed and can be inserted automatically for each image/page
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
Aligning Text
| left |   center   |   right |
or HTML
or CSS
available through custom tags
| left |   center   |   right |
or HTML
or CSS
Text Indentation
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
multiple spaces -> &nbsp;
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
Bulleted Lists
* 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
#
##
###
####
1. Item 1
a. Item 1.a
1. Item 2
Definition Lists
$ Term: Definition
$ Term: Definition
Horizontal Rule
---
---
remove Foswiki remove ProntoWiki remove TWiki