Foswiki vs. TiddlyWiki vs. DokuWiki vs. PmWiki

General Features Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Version
2.1.11
5.1.21
2025-05-14b "Librarian"
2.5.9
Last Release Date
2026-03-15 (27 days ago)
2019-07-25 (6 years ago)
2025-09-09 (7 months ago)
2026-04-05 (6 days ago)
Last Update here
2026-03-15 (27 days ago)
2019-11-20 (6 years ago)
2026-03-25 (17 days ago)
2026-04-05 (6 days ago)
Author
Foswiki Community
Jeremy Ruston, TiddlyWiki community
Andreas Gohr
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
BSD
GPL 2
GPL2+
Programming Language
Perl
HTML, JavaScript
PHP
PHP
Data Storage
Files, RCS
Files
Files
Files
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
Individuals, private, small groups
personal, small to medium companies
All
System Requirements Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Operating System
Linux, Windows, OS-X and others
Any
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Root Access
No
No
No
No
Webserver
Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, or any other supporting (F)CGI
Not required (optional backends available)
Apache, IIS, Nginx, Lighttpd, anything with PHP support
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support. Can also be run with PHP's built-in webserver.
Other Requirements
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
A common browser
none
Datastorage Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Text Files
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
MySQL
No
No
No
Plugin
PostgreSQL
No
No
No
No
Oracle
No
No
No
No
SQLite
No
No
No
Plugin
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
No
RCS
Yes
No
No
Plugin
Other
caching of content into database using plugins
Data self contained in html file OR as individual data files
None
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
Security/Anti-Spam Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
optional extensions available
Textfile, LDAP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, ActiveDirectory
Internal: per page, per group, per user, per user group. External: .htpasswd, LDAP, Active Directory. Plugins: Mailman, forums w/MySQL, oAuth, custom possible.
Host Blocking
Plugin
No
Plugin
Optional
Mail Encryption
Yes
No
Optional
Optional
nofollow
Yes
Unknown
Optional
Yes
Blacklist
Plugin
No
Optional
Optional
CAPTCHA
Plugin
No
Plugin
Plugin
Delayed Indexing
Plugin
Unknown
Optional
Optional
Development/Support Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
118 ⭐
8580 ⭐
4593 ⭐
N/A
Common Features Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Page History
Yes
Plugin
Yes
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 TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
No
Yes
Yes
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
4
German, English, French, Japanese
68
Afrikaans, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Bengali; Bangla, Catalan, Czech, Welsh, Danish, German, Greek, English, Esperanto, Spanish, Estonian, Basque, Persian, Finnish, Faroese, French, Frisian, Galician, Hebrew, Hindi, Croatian, Hungarian, Interlingua, Indonesian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Georgian, Kazakh, Cambodian, Kannada, Korean, Kurdish, Latin, Lithuanian, Latvian, Lettish, Malagasy, Macedonian, Malayalam, Marathi, Malay, Nepali, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Albanian, Serbian, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Vietnamese, 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
Email notification
Yes
Unknown
Optional
Optional
Comments
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Categories
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
None
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
No
Unknown
No
Yes
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Structured Data
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Links Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Yes
Optional
Optional
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
Plugin
No
No
Plugin
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Redirects
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Features Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
HTML Tags
All
Optional
Optional
Plugin
Math formulas
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Tables
simple + complex
complex
simple
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Markdown Support
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Textile Support
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
BBCode Support
Plugin
No
Plugin
Plugin
Emoticon Images
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Optional
Footnotes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Quoting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
FAQ Tags
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Scripting
JavaScript; Topic Markup Language
JavaScript
Optional, PHP
MarkupExpressions (core, many add-ons). PageLists with templates (core structured data scripting). WikiSh (plugin), Data forms (optional)
Content Includes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Usability Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Section Editing
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Toolbar
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Optional
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Statistics Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Orphaned Pages
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Most/Least Popular
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
No
Recent Visitors
Plugin
No
Plugin
Plugin
Analysis
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Output Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print CSS
Print CSS
Print View
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Optional
ATOM Feeds
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Optional
Abbreviations
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Auto-TOC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
XML export
Plugin
Unknown
No
Plugin
PDF Export
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Office Export
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Media and Files Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Optional
Media Revisions
Yes
No
Yes
Optional
Embedded Flash
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Embedded Video
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Image Editing
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
SVG Editing
Plugin
No
Plugin
Plugin
MindMap Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Media Search
Contents
No
Filenames only
Filenames only
Extras Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Image Galleries
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Presentations
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Forums
Plugin
Plugin
No
Plugin
Blogs
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Ticket System
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Chat
No
Unknown
No
No
Syntax Examples Foswiki TiddlyWiki DokuWiki PmWiki
Internal Link
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
WikiWord (CamelCase)
[[link]]
[[label|link]]
[[a Link]]
[[namespace:link]]
[[link|With a Title]]
[[page name]]
[[page name | link text]]
[[link text -> page name]]
[[#anchor]]
[[#anchor|link to anchor]]
[[page name #anchor]]
External Link
External Link
http://foswiki.org/ autolink
[[http://foswiki.org/][label]]
http://www.example.com
[[label|http://www.example.com]]
[[http://example.com]]
[[http://example.com|With a Title]]
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
Headlines
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
! Level 1
!! Level 2
!!! Level 3
!!!! Level 4
!!!!! Level 5
====== Level 1 ======
===== Level 2 =====
==== Level 3 ====
=== Level 4 ===
== Level 5 ==
! Level 1
!!#anchor Level 2
!!! Level 3
Bold Format
*bold*
''bold''
**bold**
'''bold'''
Italics Format
_italic_
//italic//
//italics//
''italic''
Underline Format
<u>underline</u>
__underline__
__underlined__
{+underlined+}
Monospace Format
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
{{{monospaced}}}
''monospace''
@@monospace@@
Strikethrough Format
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
--strikethrough--
<del>strikethrough</del>
{-strikethrough-}
Superscript Format
<sup>superscript</sup>
^^superscript^^
<sup>superscript</sup>
'^superscript^'
Subscript Format
<sub>subscript</sub>
~~subscript~~
<sub>subscript</sub>
'_subscript_'
Images
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
%IMAGE{"image.png"}%
[img[local.jpg]]
[img[http://foo.bar/foo.jpg]]
{{local.jpg}}
{{http://foo.bar/baz.jpg}}
https://foo.bar/foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg"alt/title text" | Caption
Aligning Text
| left |   center   |   right |
or HTML
or CSS
using custom classes, e.g.
{{right{
text
}}}
Plugin
%center% centered text
%right% right aligned
%lfloat% left floating text
%rfloat% right floating text
%rframe% right floating frame
%lframe% left floating frame
Text Indentation
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
:indent

> quote

<<<
blockquote
<<<
N/A
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
Bulleted Lists
* Item 1
* Item 1.1
* Item 2
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
* item 1
* item 1.1
* item 2
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
alternatively, indented:
* 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
- item 1
- item 1.1
- item 2
# Item 1
## Item 1.1
# Item 2
alternatively, indented:
# Item 1
# Item 1.1
# Item 2
Definition Lists
$ Term: Definition
; term
: description
Plugin
: term : definition
Horizontal Rule
---
----
----
----
remove Foswiki remove TiddlyWiki remove DokuWiki remove PmWiki