Friki vs. ikiwiki vs. PmWiki vs. ProntoWiki

General Features Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Version
2.1.1
2.67
2.6.0
1.0.1
Last Release Date
2004-05-14 (22 years ago)
2008-10-17 (17 years ago)
2026-05-16 (1 month ago)
2026-06-20 (today)
Last Update here
2006-02-14 (20 years ago)
2008-10-28 (17 years ago)
2026-05-16 (1 month ago)
2006-08-23 (19 years ago)
Author
Frank Carver
Joey Hess and the ikiwiki community
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
Clay Alberty
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
ASL or LGPL
GPL
GPL2+
BSD
Programming Language
Java
Perl
PHP
C#
Data Storage
Files
Files, RCS
Files
Database
License Cost/ Fee
0
0
0
Free
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
private users and small teams
Anyone
All
System Requirements Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Operating System
Any that can run Java 1.3 or later
Any
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Windows
Root Access
No
No
No
No
Webserver
Any that can run or call Java
Any, or none
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support. Can also be run with PHP's built-in webserver.
IIS 5+
Other Requirements
Java 1.3 or later
none
.NET framework v2.0 or higher
Datastorage Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Text Files
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unknown
MySQL
No
No
Plugin
Unknown
PostgreSQL
No
No
No
Unknown
Oracle
No
No
No
Unknown
SQLite
No
No
Plugin
Unknown
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
Unknown
RCS
No
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Other
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
SQLExpress or SQL 2000 or SQL 2005
Security/Anti-Spam Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Page Permissions
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
No
Yes
Yes
No
Authentication Backends
Built-in, HTTP auth, OpenID; extensible via plugins
Internal: per page, per group, per user, per user group. External: .htpasswd, LDAP, Active Directory. Plugins: Mailman, forums w/MySQL, oAuth, custom possible.
.NET Membership platform
Host Blocking
Patch
Yes
Optional
No
Mail Encryption
No
Yes
Optional
No
nofollow
Optional
No
Yes
No
Blacklist
No
Yes
Optional
No
CAPTCHA
No
No
Plugin
No
Delayed Indexing
No
No
Optional
No
Development/Support Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
No
Yes
No
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Common Features Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Preview
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
No
No
Yes
No
Change Summary
No
Yes
Yes
No
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Unknown
Plugin System
No
Yes
Yes
No
Special Features Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Right-to-Left Support
Unknown
Yes
Optional
Unknown
Interface Languages
0
1
English
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
Email notification
No
Yes
Optional
No
Comments
No
Discussion Pages
Discussion Pages
No
Categories
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Optional
Namespaces
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Conflict Handling
None
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Structured Data
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Links Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Optional
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
InterWiki
Yes
Plugin
Yes
No
SisterWiki
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Image Links
Optional
Yes
Yes
Optional
Windows Shares
No
Yes
Yes
No
Page Redirects
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Syntax Features Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
HTML Tags
None
Optional
Plugin
Some
Math formulas
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Tables
complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
none
CREOLE support
Unknown
No
Optional
Unknown
Markdown Support
Optional
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Textile Support
Optional
Plugin
No
Unknown
BBCode Support
Optional
No
Plugin
Unknown
Emoticon Images
Optional
Plugin
Plugin
No
Syntax Highlighting
Optional
Plugin
Optional
No
Footnotes
No
No
Plugin
Optional
Quoting
No
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Internal Comments
No
Yes
Yes
No
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
No
Yes
Yes
No
Scripting
safe subset of HTML::Template supported via template plugin
MarkupExpressions (core, many add-ons). PageLists with templates (core structured data scripting). WikiSh (plugin), Data forms (optional)
Content Includes
No
Plugin
Yes
No
Feed Aggregation
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Usability Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Section Editing
No
No
Plugin
No
Page Templates
No
Yes
Yes
No
Double-Click Edit
No
No
Plugin
No
Toolbar
No
No
Optional
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
No
No
Plugin
No
Access Keys
Unknown
No
Yes
No
Auto Signature
No
No
Yes
No
Statistics Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Wanted Pages
No
Plugin
Optional
No
Orphaned Pages
No
Plugin
Optional
No
Most/Least Popular
No
No
No
Optional
Recent Visitors
Yes
No
Plugin
No
Analysis
No
No
Plugin
No
Output Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Printer Friendly
No
Print CSS
Print View
Mobile Friendly
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Themes & Skins
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
No
Plugin
Optional
No
ATOM Feeds
No
Plugin
Optional
No
Abbreviations
No
No
Plugin
No
Auto-TOC
No
Plugin
Optional
No
Raw Export
No
Yes
Yes
No
HTML Export
No
Yes
Plugin
No
XML export
No
No
Plugin
No
PDF Export
No
No
Plugin
No
Office Export
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Media and Files Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
File Attachments
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
Media Revisions
No
Yes
Optional
No
Embedded Flash
No
Optional
Plugin
Unknown
Embedded Video
No
Optional
Plugin
Unknown
Image Editing
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
SVG Editing
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
MindMap Editing
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Media Search
No
Filenames only
Filenames only
Extras Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Calendar
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Image Galleries
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Presentations
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Forums
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Blogs
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Ticket System
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Chat
Unknown
Unknown
No
Unknown
Syntax Examples Friki ikiwiki PmWiki ProntoWiki
Internal Link
[[internal]]
[[page name]]
[[page name | link text]]
[[link text -> page name]]
[[#anchor]]
[[#anchor|link to anchor]]
[[page name #anchor]]
[pagename]
External Link
[link text](http://example.org)
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
{title|url}
Headlines
Two syntaxes:

# heading 1
## heading 2
### heading 3

heading 1
=========

heading 2
---------
! Level 1
!!#anchor Level 2
!!! Level 3
!, !!, !!!
Bold Format
'''bold''
**bold**
__bold__
'''bold'''
**bold**
Italics Format
''italic''
*emphasized*
_emphasized_
''italic''
''italics''
Underline Format
via HTML: <u>underlined</u>
{+underlined+}
__under__
Monospace Format
monospace
`inline monospace`

indented block of
monospaced text

tab-indented
block
@@monospace@@
Strikethrough Format
via HTML: <del>deleted</del>
{-strikethrough-}
<<strike>> (using custom tags)
Superscript Format
via HTML: x<sup>2</sup>
'^superscript^'
<<super>> (using custom tags)
Subscript Format
via HTML: a<sub>1</sub>
'_subscript_'
<<sub>> (using custom tags)
Images
http://stringtree.org/friki/logo.gif
![alt text](internal/image)
![alt text](http://example.org/external/image)
https://foo.bar/foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg"alt/title text" | Caption
{guid} - this is displayed and can be inserted automatically for each image/page
Aligning Text
%center% centered text
%right% right aligned
%lfloat% left floating text
%rfloat% right floating text
%rframe% right floating frame
%lframe% left floating frame
available through custom tags
Text Indentation
:        indented
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
multiple spaces -> &nbsp;
Bulleted Lists
* first
* second
* item 1
* item 2
* item 2.1
* item 2.2
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
alternatively, indented:
* item 1
* item 1.1
* item 2
+
++
+++
++++
Numbered Lists
1. first
1. second
1. item 1
2. item 2
1. item 1.1
42. the value doesn't matter
1. any value works
# Item 1
## Item 1.1
# Item 2
alternatively, indented:
# Item 1
# Item 1.1
# Item 2
#
##
###
####
Definition Lists
title:        description
via HTML:
<dl>
<dt>term</dt>
<dd>definition</dd>
</dl>
: term : definition
Horizontal Rule
---
***
___
------------------
Any number > 3
- - - - - - - - - -
spaces don't matter
----
remove Friki remove ikiwiki remove PmWiki remove ProntoWiki