ProntoWiki vs. WackoWiki vs. ErfurtWiki vs. Instiki

General Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Version
1.0.1
6.2.0
R1.02b (kind of final release :-)
0.30.0
Last Release Date
2026-01-30 (today)
2025-12-14 (1 month ago)
2005-06-16 (20 years ago)
2019-03-01 (6 years ago)
Last Update here
2006-08-23 (19 years ago)
2025-12-13 (1 month ago)
2010-04-04 (15 years ago)
2019-03-04 (6 years ago)
Author
Clay Alberty
WackoWiki Team
Mario Salzer & Andi Fundinger
David Heinemeier Hansson, Jacques Distler, Matthias Tarasiewicz
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
BSD
BSD
Public Domain (!)
Ruby's
Programming Language
C#
PHP
PHP
Ruby on Rails
Data Storage
Database
Database
Database, Files, RCS
Database
License Cost/ Fee
Free
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Advanced End Users, Developers, End Users/Desktop
small + medium sites, development teams
general, education
System Requirements ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Operating System
Windows
OS Independent
any
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X
Root Access
No
No
No
No
Webserver
IIS 5+
run with the appserver/webserver of your choice
anything with PHP support
Thin (included), or Apache/NGinx (via Passenger)
Other Requirements
.NET framework v2.0 or higher
mod_rewrite (optional)
none
Ruby 2.0-2.6
Datastorage ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Text Files
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
MySQL
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
PostgreSQL
Unknown
No
Plugin
Yes
Oracle
Unknown
No
No
Plugin
SQLite
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
BerkeleyDB
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
RCS
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Other
SQLExpress or SQL 2000 or SQL 2005
MariaDB
no
Any Rails-compatible back-end datastore can be used.
Security/Anti-Spam ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
No
Yes
Yes
No
Authentication Backends
.NET Membership platform
LDAP (patch), ActiveDirectory
UNIX, LDAP, MySQL, PHP, other
Host Blocking
No
Optional
Plugin
Yes
Mail Encryption
No
Optional
Plugin
Unknown
nofollow
No
Optional
Plugin
Unknown
Blacklist
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
CAPTCHA
No
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Delayed Indexing
No
No
Patch
Unknown
Development/Support ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
Yes
No
No
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
not yet :-)
Stars on GitHub
N/A
54 ⭐
N/A
510 ⭐
Common Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Minor Changes
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Change Summary
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Plugin System
No
Yes
Yes
No
Special Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Unicode Support
No
Yes
No
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Unknown
Yes
Patch
Yes
Interface Languages
1
English
30
Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Estonian, Persian, Finnish, French, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Tamil, Ukrainian, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
4
German, English, Spanish, Dutch
1
English
Email notification
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Comments
No
Flat
Plugin
No
Categories
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
No
Yes
No
No
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Page Locking
Page Locking
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
No
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Unknown
Patch
Optional
Yes
Structured Data
Unknown
Plugin
No
No
Links ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
CamelCase
Optional
Optional
Yes
Optional
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
SisterWiki
No
No
Plugin
No
Image Links
Optional
Yes
Patch
Yes
Windows Shares
No
Yes
Yes
No
Page Redirects
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
HTML Tags
Some
All
Plugin
All
Math formulas
No
Plugin
No
Yes
Tables
none
simple
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Unknown
No
Optional
No
Markdown Support
Unknown
No
No
Yes
Textile Support
Unknown
No
No
Yes
BBCode Support
Unknown
Patch
Plugin
No
Emoticon Images
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Syntax Highlighting
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Footnotes
Optional
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Quoting
Optional
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Internal Comments
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
No
No
Yes
No
Scripting
actions (PHP)
optional
None
Content Includes
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Feed Aggregation
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Usability ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Section Editing
No
Yes
No
No
Page Templates
No
Yes
Yes
No
Double-Click Edit
No
Yes
Patch
No
Toolbar
Yes
Yes
No
No
WYSIWYG Editing
No
Plugin
No
No
Access Keys
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
Auto Signature
No
Yes
No
Yes
Statistics ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Recent Changes
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Orphaned Pages
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Most/Least Popular
Optional
Yes
Plugin
No
Recent Visitors
No
Yes
Optional
No
Analysis
No
Plugin
No
No
Output ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print CSS
Print View
Mobile Friendly
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
RSS Feeds
No
Yes
Plugin
No
ATOM Feeds
No
No
Plugin
Yes
Abbreviations
No
Patch
Optional
Yes
Auto-TOC
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Raw Export
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
XML export
No
Yes
Optional
No
PDF Export
No
Patch
Optional
No
Office Export
Unknown
Patch
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
File Attachments
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Media Revisions
No
No
No
No
Embedded Flash
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
Embedded Video
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Image Editing
No
No
No
No
SVG Editing
No
No
No
Yes
MindMap Editing
No
Plugin
No
No
Media Search
Contents
No
No
Extras ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Calendar
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
No
Image Galleries
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
No
Presentations
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Forums
Unknown
Optional
No
No
Blogs
Unknown
Optional
Yes
No
Ticket System
Unknown
No
No
No
Chat
Unknown
Patch
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples ProntoWiki WackoWiki ErfurtWiki Instiki
Internal Link
[pagename]
[[InternalLink]] 
((InternalLink))
[[InternalLink alternate text]]
CamelCase
WikiPage
[WikiPage | Go here]
[[Some Page]]
[[Some Page|anchor text]]
[[Some Page#anchor]]
[[Some Page#anchor|anchor text]]
External Link
{title|url}
https://wackowiki.org
[[https://wackowiki.org WackoWiki]]
[[Wikipedia:WackoWiki]]
http://erfurtwiki.sf.net
[http://erfurtwiki.sf.net | Go here]
mario@wiki.net
[another site](http://example.com)
Headlines
!, !!, !!!
== Level 1 ==
=== Level 2 ===
==== Level 3 ====
===== Level 4 =====
====== Level 5 ======
!!! Big Headline
!! Medium Headline
! Section Headline
#Level 1#
##Level 2##
###Level 3###
####Level 4####
#####Level 5#####
######Level 6######
Bold Format
**bold**
**bold**
__bold text__
**bold text**
**bold**
Italics Format
''italics''
//italics//
''ialic text''
_italic_, *italic*
Underline Format
__under__
__underline__
optional or via css
underlined
{: style='text-decoration:underlined'}
Monospace Format
##monospace##
==monospaced text==
`monospace`
Strikethrough Format
<<strike>> (using custom tags)
--strikethrough--
optional or via css
<del>strikethrough</del>
strikethrough
{: style='text-decoration:line-through'}
Superscript Format
<<super>> (using custom tags)
^^superscript^^
^^superscript text^^
<sup>superscript</sup>
Subscript Format
<<sub>> (using custom tags)
vvsubscriptvv
optional or via css
<sub>subscript</sub>
Images
{guid} - this is displayed and can be inserted automatically for each image/page
((image.png))
file:image.png
https://example.com/image.png
[link to the image.jpg]
![alt text](http://ex.com/image.jpg),
[[image.jpg|alt text:pic]]
Aligning Text
available through custom tags
{html}<div align="right">{html}

%%(wacko wrapper="text" wrapper_align="center")
content%%
optional or via css
p{: style='text-align:left'}
p{: style='text-align:right'}
p{: style='text-align:center'}
p{: style='text-align:justify'}
Text Indentation
multiple spaces -> &nbsp;
one
two
just use 3 spaces or tabs
indented text
p
{: style='margin-left:3em'}

> blockquote
Bulleted Lists
+
++
+++
++++
*one
**One-two
*two
*three
* Item A
* Item B
** Item B1
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
Numbered Lists
#
##
###
####
1. numbered List
1. numbered List-2
2.#8 numbered List, with break


# Item 1
## Item 1.1
##* Item 1.1a
##* Item 1.1b

1. Item 1
1. Item 1.1
2. Item 2
Definition Lists
{html}<dl>
<dt>Coffee</dt>
<dd>Black hot drink</dd>
<dt>Milk</dt>
<dd>White cold drink</dd>
</dl>{html}
:definition: explanation
:anotherdef: another description
term
: definition
Horizontal Rule
----
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***
remove ProntoWiki remove WackoWiki remove ErfurtWiki remove Instiki