PageWork vs. Foswiki vs. ikiwiki vs. PmWiki vs. ProWiki

General Features PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Version
0.4.8
2.1.11
2.67
2.7.3
2.0.045
Last Release Date
2010-07-20 (16 years ago)
2026-03-15 (4 months ago)
2008-10-17 (17 years ago)
2026-07-26 (3 days ago)
2006-10-14 (19 years ago)
Last Update here
2010-10-23 (15 years ago)
2026-03-15 (4 months ago)
2008-10-28 (17 years ago)
2026-07-26 (3 days ago)
2009-11-28 (16 years ago)
Author
Pitt Murmann
Foswiki Community
Joey Hess and the ikiwiki community
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
Helmut Leitner
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPLv3
GPL
GPL
GPL2+
GPL
Programming Language
PHP
Perl
Perl
PHP
Perl
Data Storage
Database, Files
Files, RCS
Files, RCS
Files
Files
License Cost/ Fee
none
$0
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Medium-sized sites
Enterprise, Corporate, Business, Intranets, Personal use, Community building, Educational, Intranet, Extranet
Anyone
All
individual Wiki projects, everybody who needs more than a single wiki for a single purpose
System Requirements PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Operating System
Any
Linux, Windows, OS-X and others
Any
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Unix / Linux
Root Access
No
No
No
No
No
Webserver
Any
Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, or any other supporting (F)CGI
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
DBA with bdb or qdbm support
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
none
none
Datastorage PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Text Files
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
MySQL
No
No
No
Plugin
No
PostgreSQL
No
No
No
No
No
Oracle
No
No
No
No
No
SQLite
Patch
No
No
Plugin
No
BerkeleyDB
Yes
No
No
No
No
RCS
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Other
caching of content into database using plugins
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
Security/Anti-Spam PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
Proprietary
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
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
No
Plugin
Yes
Optional
Yes
Mail Encryption
No
Yes
Yes
Optional
No
nofollow
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Blacklist
No
Plugin
Yes
Optional
Yes
CAPTCHA
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
Delayed Indexing
Yes
Plugin
No
Optional
No
Development/Support PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
N/A
118 ⭐
N/A
N/A
N/A
Common Features PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Special Features PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Optional
No
Yes
Optional
No
Interface Languages
2
German, English
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
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
No
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Comments
Discussion Pages
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Discussion Pages
No
Categories
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Conflict Handling
Conflict Detection
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
No
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Structured Data
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
No
Links PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
Optional
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
No
Plugin
Yes
Yes
No
Page Redirects
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Syntax Features PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
HTML Tags
All
All
Optional
Plugin
Some
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Tables
simple
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
No
Plugin
No
Optional
No
Markdown Support
No
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
No
Textile Support
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
BBCode Support
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
Emoticon Images
No
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
No
Footnotes
Yes
Plugin
No
Plugin
Yes
Quoting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Custom styles
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Scripting
JavaScript; Topic Markup Language
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
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
No
Usability PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Section Editing
Yes
Plugin
No
Plugin
Yes
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
Toolbar
Yes
Plugin
No
Optional
No
WYSIWYG Editing
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Auto Signature
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Statistics PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
Yes
No
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Orphaned Pages
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Most/Least Popular
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Recent Visitors
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
Analysis
No
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Output PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print View
Print CSS
Print View
Print View
Mobile Friendly
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
RSS Feeds
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Optional
No
Abbreviations
Yes
Plugin
No
Plugin
Yes
Auto-TOC
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Optional
No
Raw Export
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
XML export
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
PDF Export
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
Office Export
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Media and Files PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Media Revisions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
No
Embedded Flash
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
Yes
Embedded Video
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
Yes
Image Editing
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
SVG Editing
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
Yes
MindMap Editing
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
No
Media Search
Keywords
Contents
Filenames only
Filenames only
No
Extras PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Image Galleries
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
No
Presentations
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Forums
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
No
Blogs
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Ticket System
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
No
Chat
Unknown
No
Unknown
No
Unknown
Syntax Examples PageWork Foswiki ikiwiki PmWiki ProWiki
Internal Link
[[link]]
[[link|alternate text]]
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
[[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
http://www.wikimatrix.org/
External Link
http://foswiki.org/ autolink
[[http://foswiki.org/][label]]
[link text](http://example.org)
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
http://example.org
InterWiki:page
[some:link labelforlink]
Headlines
= L1 =
== L2 ==
=== L3 ===
==== L4 ====
===== L5 =====

= L1
== L2
=== L3
==== L4
===== L5
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
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
This is '''bold''' (or rather, strong).
This is **bold**, too.
*bold*
**bold**
__bold__
'''bold'''
'''bold'''
Italics Format
This is in ''italics'' (or rather, emphasized).
This is in //italics//, too.
_italic_
*emphasized*
_emphasized_
''italic''
''italic''
Underline Format
This is __underlined__.
<u>underline</u>
via HTML: <u>underlined</u>
{+underlined+}
<u>underlined</u>
Monospace Format
This is %%monospaced%%.
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
`inline monospace`

indented block of
monospaced text

tab-indented
block
@@monospace@@
<tt>monospace</tt>
Strikethrough Format
This is --not-- important.
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
via HTML: <del>deleted</del>
{-strikethrough-}
[[strike]strikethrough text]
Superscript Format
a^^2^^ = b^^2^^ + c^^2^^
<sup>superscript</sup>
via HTML: x<sup>2</sup>
'^superscript^'
<sup>text</sup>
Subscript Format
p^^^n^^^ := {x^^^n^^^, y^^^n^^^, y^^^n^^^}
<sub>subscript</sub>
via HTML: a<sub>1</sub>
'_subscript_'
<sub>text</sub>
Images
{{image|image_file.suffix}}
{{image|image_file.suffix|alternate text}}
{{figure|image_file.suffix}}
{{figure|image_file.suffix|caption text}}
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
%IMAGE{"image.png"}%
![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
{{p|align:left|text of paragraph}}
{{p|align:center|text of paragraph}}
{{p|align:right|text of paragraph}}
| 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
only as part of tables or citations
[align:left|center|right]
Text Indentation
> L1 quote
>> L2 quote
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
: indented line
:: indented line
Bulleted Lists
* one
* two
** two alpha
** two beta
* three
* Item 1
* Item 1.1
* Item 2
* 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
# one
# two
## two alpha
## two beta
# three
1. Item 1
a. Item 1.a
1. Item 2
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
: term : definition
$ Term: Definition
via HTML:
<dl>
<dt>term</dt>
<dd>definition</dd>
</dl>
: term : definition
; term: definition
Horizontal Rule
---
---
---
***
___
------------------
Any number > 3
- - - - - - - - - -
spaces don't matter
----
----
remove PageWork remove Foswiki remove ikiwiki remove PmWiki remove ProWiki