ikiwiki vs. PmWiki vs. ProWiki

General Features ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Version
2.67
2.7.3
2.0.045
Last Release Date
2008-10-17 (17 years ago)
2026-07-26 (4 days ago)
2006-10-14 (19 years ago)
Last Update here
2008-10-28 (17 years ago)
2026-07-26 (4 days ago)
2009-11-28 (16 years ago)
Author
Joey Hess and the ikiwiki community
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
Helmut Leitner
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL
GPL2+
GPL
Programming Language
Perl
PHP
Perl
Data Storage
Files, RCS
Files
Files
License Cost/ Fee
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Anyone
All
individual Wiki projects, everybody who needs more than a single wiki for a single purpose
System Requirements ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Operating System
Any
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Unix / Linux
Root Access
No
No
No
Webserver
Any, or none
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support. Can also be run with PHP's built-in webserver.
Apache (probably anything supporting CGI)
Other Requirements
none
none
Datastorage ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
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
Yes
Other
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
Security/Anti-Spam ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
Yes
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.
Host Blocking
Yes
Optional
Yes
Mail Encryption
Yes
Optional
No
nofollow
No
Yes
Yes
Blacklist
Yes
Optional
Yes
CAPTCHA
No
Plugin
No
Delayed Indexing
No
Optional
No
Development/Support ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
Yes
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
N/A
N/A
N/A
Common Features ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
No
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
No
Special Features ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Yes
Optional
No
Interface Languages
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
8
German, English, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Russian
Email notification
Yes
Optional
Yes
Comments
Discussion Pages
Discussion Pages
No
Categories
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
Yes
Yes
Conflict Handling
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Yes
Yes
Yes
Structured Data
Unknown
Yes
No
Links ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
CamelCase
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Plugin
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Yes
Yes
No
Page Redirects
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Syntax Features ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
HTML Tags
Optional
Plugin
Some
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
No
Optional
No
Markdown Support
Yes
Plugin
No
Textile Support
Plugin
No
No
BBCode Support
No
Plugin
No
Emoticon Images
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Optional
No
Footnotes
No
Plugin
Yes
Quoting
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
No
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
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
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
Plugin
No
Usability ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Section Editing
No
Plugin
Yes
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
No
Plugin
No
Toolbar
No
Optional
No
WYSIWYG Editing
No
Plugin
No
Access Keys
No
Yes
No
Auto Signature
No
Yes
Yes
Statistics ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Orphaned Pages
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Most/Least Popular
No
No
Yes
Recent Visitors
No
Plugin
No
Analysis
No
Plugin
Yes
Output ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Printer Friendly
Print CSS
Print View
Print View
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Optional
RSS Feeds
Plugin
Optional
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Plugin
Optional
No
Abbreviations
No
Plugin
Yes
Auto-TOC
Plugin
Optional
No
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Yes
Plugin
Yes
XML export
No
Plugin
No
PDF Export
No
Plugin
No
Office Export
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Media and Files ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Optional
Yes
Media Revisions
Yes
Optional
No
Embedded Flash
Optional
Plugin
Yes
Embedded Video
Optional
Plugin
Yes
Image Editing
No
Plugin
No
SVG Editing
No
Plugin
Yes
MindMap Editing
No
Plugin
No
Media Search
Filenames only
Filenames only
No
Extras ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Image Galleries
Plugin
Plugin
No
Presentations
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Forums
Unknown
Plugin
No
Blogs
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Ticket System
Yes
Plugin
No
Chat
Unknown
No
Unknown
Syntax Examples ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Internal Link
[[internal]]
[[page name]]
[[page name | link text]]
[[link text -> page name]]
[[#anchor]]
[[#anchor|link to anchor]]
[[page name #anchor]]
CamelCase
Wordlinking
{{free link}}
[page labelforlink]
External Link
[link text](http://example.org)
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
http://example.org
InterWiki:page
[some:link labelforlink]
Headlines
Two syntaxes:

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

heading 1
=========

heading 2
---------
! Level 1
!!#anchor Level 2
!!! Level 3
= Headline 1 =
== Headline 2 =
=== Headline 3 =
==== Headline 4 =
===== Headline 5 =
====== Headline 6 =
Bold Format
**bold**
__bold__
'''bold'''
'''bold'''
Italics Format
*emphasized*
_emphasized_
''italic''
''italic''
Underline Format
via HTML: <u>underlined</u>
{+underlined+}
<u>underlined</u>
Monospace Format
`inline monospace`

indented block of
monospaced text

tab-indented
block
@@monospace@@
<tt>monospace</tt>
Strikethrough Format
via HTML: <del>deleted</del>
{-strikethrough-}
[[strike]strikethrough text]
Superscript Format
via HTML: x<sup>2</sup>
'^superscript^'
<sup>text</sup>
Subscript Format
via HTML: a<sub>1</sub>
'_subscript_'
<sub>text</sub>
Images
![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
http://example.org/file.jpg
Upload:file.gif
[[Image]...options...]
Aligning Text
%center% centered text
%right% right aligned
%lfloat% left floating text
%rfloat% right floating text
%rframe% right floating frame
%lframe% left floating frame
only as part of tables or citations
[align:left|center|right]
Text Indentation
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
: indented line
:: indented line
Bulleted Lists
* 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
* bulleted list
** bulleted list
Numbered Lists
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
# numbered list
## numbered list
Definition Lists
via HTML:
<dl>
<dt>term</dt>
<dd>definition</dd>
</dl>
: term : definition
; term: definition
Horizontal Rule
---
***
___
------------------
Any number > 3
- - - - - - - - - -
spaces don't matter
----
----
remove ikiwiki remove PmWiki remove ProWiki