ProntoWiki vs. Instiki vs. PhpWiki

General Features ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Version
1.0.1
0.30.0
phpwiki-1.3.14
Last Release Date
2026-01-30 (today)
2019-03-01 (6 years ago)
2007-07-01 (18 years ago)
Last Update here
2006-08-23 (19 years ago)
2019-03-04 (6 years ago)
2009-04-03 (16 years ago)
Author
Clay Alberty
David Heinemeier Hansson, Jacques Distler, Matthias Tarasiewicz
Steve Wainstead, Jeff Dairiki, Reini Urban, Carsten Klapp, Marc-Etienne Vargenau
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
BSD
Ruby's
GPL
Programming Language
C#
Ruby on Rails
PHP
Data Storage
Database
Database
Database, Files, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
Free
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
general, education
Any
System Requirements ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Operating System
Windows
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Root Access
No
No
No
Webserver
IIS 5+
Thin (included), or Apache/NGinx (via Passenger)
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support
Other Requirements
.NET framework v2.0 or higher
Ruby 2.0-2.6
various opt. helpers
Datastorage ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Text Files
Unknown
No
Yes
MySQL
Unknown
Yes
Yes
PostgreSQL
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Oracle
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
SQLite
Unknown
Yes
Yes
BerkeleyDB
Unknown
No
Yes
RCS
Unknown
No
Yes
Other
SQLExpress or SQL 2000 or SQL 2005
Any Rails-compatible back-end datastore can be used.
gdbm, cvs, MSSQL, ... (ADODB, PearDB)
Security/Anti-Spam ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
No
No
Yes
Authentication Backends
.NET Membership platform
db, session, pop, imap, ldap, file, webserver
Host Blocking
No
Yes
No
Mail Encryption
No
Unknown
No
nofollow
No
Unknown
Yes
Blacklist
No
Yes
Yes
CAPTCHA
No
Unknown
Yes
Delayed Indexing
No
Unknown
No
Development/Support ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
No
No
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#phpwiki
Stars on GitHub
N/A
510 ⭐
N/A
Common Features ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Preview
Yes
No
Yes
Minor Changes
No
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
No
No
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
No
No
Yes
Special Features ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Unicode Support
No
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Unknown
Yes
No
Interface Languages
1
English
1
English
9
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese Traditional
Email notification
No
No
Yes
Comments
No
No
Plugin
Categories
Optional
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
No
No
No
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Structured Data
Unknown
No
Patch
Links ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
CamelCase
Optional
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
No
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
No
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
No
No
No
Image Links
Optional
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
No
No
Yes
Page Redirects
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Syntax Features ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
HTML Tags
Some
All
Some
Math formulas
No
Yes
Plugin
Tables
none
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Unknown
No
No
Markdown Support
Unknown
Yes
No
Textile Support
Unknown
Yes
No
BBCode Support
Unknown
No
No
Emoticon Images
No
No
No
Syntax Highlighting
No
Yes
Plugin
Footnotes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Quoting
Optional
Yes
Yes
Internal Comments
No
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
No
No
No
Scripting
None
plugins, templates, PHP
Content Includes
No
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
No
No
Yes
Usability ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Section Editing
No
No
No
Page Templates
No
No
Yes
Double-Click Edit
No
No
Optional
Toolbar
Yes
No
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
No
No
Patch
Access Keys
No
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
No
Yes
Yes
Statistics ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Recent Changes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Yes
Yes
Orphaned Pages
No
Yes
Yes
Most/Least Popular
Optional
No
Yes
Recent Visitors
No
No
Yes
Analysis
No
No
Plugin
Output ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Unknown
Yes
No
Themes & Skins
Yes
No
Yes
RSS Feeds
No
No
Yes
ATOM Feeds
No
Yes
No
Abbreviations
No
Yes
No
Auto-TOC
No
Yes
Yes
Raw Export
No
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
No
Yes
Yes
XML export
No
No
No
PDF Export
No
No
Yes
Office Export
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
No
No
Yes
Embedded Flash
Unknown
No
Yes
Embedded Video
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Image Editing
No
No
No
SVG Editing
No
Yes
No
MindMap Editing
No
No
No
Media Search
No
No
Extras ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Calendar
Unknown
No
Yes
Image Galleries
Unknown
No
Yes
Presentations
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Forums
Unknown
No
Yes
Blogs
Unknown
No
Yes
Ticket System
Unknown
No
No
Chat
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples ProntoWiki Instiki PhpWiki
Internal Link
[pagename]
[[Some Page]]
[[Some Page|anchor text]]
[[Some Page#anchor]]
[[Some Page#anchor|anchor text]]
WikiWord or [somelink]
[ desc | pagename ]
External Link
{title|url}
[another site](http://example.com)
http://someserver/someurl
[ desc | exturl ]
Headlines
!, !!, !!!
#Level 1#
##Level 2##
###Level 3###
####Level 4####
#####Level 5#####
######Level 6######
!!!Headline1
!!Headline2
!Headline3
Bold Format
**bold**
**bold**
*bold* or
<strong>bold</strong>
Italics Format
''italics''
_italic_, *italic*
_italics_ or 
or
<em>italics</em>
Underline Format
__under__
underlined
{: style='text-decoration:underlined'}
<u>underlined</u>
Monospace Format
`monospace`
<tt>monospace</tt>
<code>code</code>
<pre>preformatted</pre>
<verbatim>
unparsed text</verbatim>


Strikethrough Format
<<strike>> (using custom tags)
<del>strikethrough</del>
strikethrough
{: style='text-decoration:line-through'}
<strike>striked through</strike>
Superscript Format
<<super>> (using custom tags)
<sup>superscript</sup>
<sup>above</sup>
Subscript Format
<<sub>> (using custom tags)
<sub>subscript</sub>
<sub>below</sub>
Images
{guid} - this is displayed and can be inserted automatically for each image/page
![alt text](http://ex.com/image.jpg),
[[image.jpg|alt text:pic]]
[ 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
Aligning Text
available through custom tags
p{: style='text-align:left'}
p{: style='text-align:right'}
p{: style='text-align:center'}
p{: style='text-align:justify'}
<?plugin RawHtml <span align="right"> ?>right<?plugin RawHtml </span> ?>
or <div align="right"> right </div>

Text Indentation
multiple spaces -> &nbsp;
p
{: style='margin-left:3em'}

> blockquote
;: left indent
;;: more left indent

or 
paragraph
and another level 
Bulleted Lists
+
++
+++
++++
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
* list
or
- list
Numbered Lists
#
##
###
####
1. Item 1
1. Item 1.1
2. Item 2
# list
Definition Lists
term
: definition
Term:<def>
def
Horizontal Rule
***
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remove ProntoWiki remove Instiki remove PhpWiki