PmWiki vs. PhpWiki vs. TiddlyWiki vs. TWiki

General Features PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Version
2.5.5
phpwiki-1.3.14
5.1.21
TWiki-6.1.0
Last Release Date
2026-01-10 (19 days ago)
2007-07-01 (18 years ago)
2019-07-25 (6 years ago)
2018-07-16 (7 years ago)
Last Update here
2026-01-10 (19 days ago)
2009-04-03 (16 years ago)
2019-11-20 (6 years ago)
2019-07-19 (6 years ago)
Author
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
Steve Wainstead, Jeff Dairiki, Reini Urban, Carsten Klapp, Marc-Etienne Vargenau
Jeremy Ruston, TiddlyWiki community
Peter Thoeny, TWiki community
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL2+
GPL
BSD
GPL
Programming Language
PHP
PHP
HTML, JavaScript
Perl, JavaScript
Data Storage
Files
Database, Files, RCS
Files
Files, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
0
0
0
N/A
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
All
Any
Individuals, private, small groups
Large enterprise; small to medium businesses
System Requirements PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Operating System
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Any
Linux, Windows, OS-X and other
Root Access
No
No
No
No
Webserver
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support. Can also be run with PHP's built-in webserver.
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support
Not required (optional backends available)
Almost any webserver, typically Apache and Ngnix
Other Requirements
none
various opt. helpers
A common browser
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
Datastorage PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Text Files
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
MySQL
Plugin
Yes
No
No
PostgreSQL
No
Yes
No
No
Oracle
No
Yes
No
No
SQLite
Plugin
Yes
No
No
BerkeleyDB
No
Yes
No
No
RCS
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Other
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
gdbm, cvs, MSSQL, ... (ADODB, PearDB)
Data self contained in html file OR as individual data files
RcsLite Perl library for version control without external RCS; backend API for other storage
Security/Anti-Spam PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Authentication Backends
Internal: per page, per group, per user, per user group. External: .htpasswd, LDAP, Active Directory. Plugins: Mailman, forums w/MySQL, oAuth, custom possible.
db, session, pop, imap, ldap, file, webserver
optional extensions available
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
Host Blocking
Optional
No
No
Plugin
Mail Encryption
Optional
No
No
Yes
nofollow
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Blacklist
Optional
Yes
No
Plugin
CAPTCHA
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
Delayed Indexing
Optional
No
Unknown
Plugin
Development/Support PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#phpwiki
Stars on GitHub
N/A
N/A
8524 ⭐
N/A
Common Features PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Plugin
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 PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Optional
No
Yes
No
Interface Languages
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
9
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese Traditional
4
German, English, French, Japanese
19
Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
Email notification
Optional
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Comments
Discussion Pages
Plugin
Plugin
Threaded
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Conflict Handling
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
None
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Yes
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Structured Data
Yes
Patch
Yes
Yes
Links PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
CamelCase
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
SisterWiki
Plugin
No
No
Plugin
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Page Redirects
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Syntax Features PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
HTML Tags
Plugin
Some
Optional
All
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Optional
No
Plugin
No
Markdown Support
Plugin
No
Yes
No
Textile Support
No
No
No
Plugin
BBCode Support
Plugin
No
No
No
Emoticon Images
Plugin
No
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Optional
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Footnotes
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Quoting
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Scripting
MarkupExpressions (core, many add-ons). PageLists with templates (core structured data scripting). WikiSh (plugin), Data forms (optional)
plugins, templates, PHP
JavaScript
TWiki Markup Language, TWiki variables, JavaScript, extensive API
Content Includes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Usability PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Section Editing
Plugin
No
Yes
Plugin
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
Plugin
Toolbar
Optional
Yes
Yes
Plugin
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
Patch
Plugin
Yes
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Statistics PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
Optional
Yes
Yes
No
Orphaned Pages
Optional
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Most/Least Popular
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Recent Visitors
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
Analysis
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Output PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print CSS
Print CSS
Print View
Mobile Friendly
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Optional
Yes
Plugin
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Optional
No
Plugin
Yes
Abbreviations
Plugin
No
Unknown
Plugin
Auto-TOC
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
XML export
Plugin
No
Unknown
Plugin
PDF Export
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Office Export
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
File Attachments
Optional
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Media Revisions
Optional
Yes
No
Yes
Embedded Flash
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Embedded Video
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Image Editing
Plugin
No
Yes
Plugin
SVG Editing
Plugin
No
No
Plugin
MindMap Editing
Plugin
No
Plugin
Plugin
Media Search
Filenames only
No
No
Contents
Extras PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Image Galleries
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Presentations
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Forums
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Blogs
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Ticket System
Plugin
No
Plugin
Plugin
Chat
No
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples PmWiki PhpWiki TiddlyWiki TWiki
Internal Link
[[page name]]
[[page name | link text]]
[[link text -> page name]]
[[#anchor]]
[[#anchor|link to anchor]]
[[page name #anchor]]
WikiWord or [somelink]
[ desc | pagename ]
WikiWord (CamelCase)
[[link]]
[[label|link]]
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
External Link
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
http://someserver/someurl
[ desc | exturl ]
http://www.example.com
[[label|http://www.example.com]]
http://twiki.org/ autolink
[[http://twiki.org/][label]]
Headlines
! Level 1
!!#anchor Level 2
!!! Level 3
!!!Headline1
!!Headline2
!Headline3
! Level 1
!! Level 2
!!! Level 3
!!!! Level 4
!!!!! Level 5
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
Bold Format
'''bold'''
*bold* or
<strong>bold</strong>
''bold''
*bold*
Italics Format
''italic''
_italics_ or 
or
<em>italics</em>
//italic//
_italic_
Underline Format
{+underlined+}
<u>underlined</u>
__underline__
<u>underline</u>
Monospace Format
@@monospace@@
<tt>monospace</tt>
<code>code</code>
<pre>preformatted</pre>
<verbatim>
unparsed text</verbatim>


{{{monospaced}}}
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
Strikethrough Format
{-strikethrough-}
<strike>striked through</strike>
--strikethrough--
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
Superscript Format
'^superscript^'
<sup>above</sup>
^^superscript^^
<sup>superscript</sup>
Subscript Format
'_subscript_'
<sub>below</sub>
~~subscript~~
<sub>subscript</sub>
Images
https://foo.bar/foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg"alt/title text" | Caption
[ http://foo.org/1.jpg size=30%] 
external image
[Upload:view.jpg align=right size=50x40] 
view uploaded image
[Upload:view.jpg | http://server/external-linkjpg ] 
view and link to another image
[img[local.jpg]]
[img[http://foo.bar/foo.jpg]]
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
Aligning Text
%center% centered text
%right% right aligned
%lfloat% left floating text
%rfloat% right floating text
%rframe% right floating frame
%lframe% left floating frame
<?plugin RawHtml <span align="right"> ?>right<?plugin RawHtml </span> ?>
or <div align="right"> right </div>

using custom classes, e.g.
{{right{
text
}}}
| left |   center   |   right |
or HTML
or CSS
Text Indentation
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
;: left indent
;;: more left indent

or 
paragraph
and another level 
:indent

> quote

<<<
blockquote
<<<
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
Bulleted Lists
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
alternatively, indented:
* item 1
* item 1.1
* item 2
* list
or
- list
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
* Item 1
* Item 1.1
* Item 2
Numbered Lists
# Item 1
## Item 1.1
# Item 2
alternatively, indented:
# Item 1
# Item 1.1
# Item 2
# list
# Item 1
## Item 1.1
# Item 2
1. Item 1
a. Item 1.a
1. Item 2
Definition Lists
: term : definition
Term:<def>
def
; term
: description
$ Term: Definition
Horizontal Rule
----
----
----
---
remove PmWiki remove PhpWiki remove TiddlyWiki remove TWiki