ProntoWiki vs. WackoWiki vs. Instiki vs. XWiki

General Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Version
1.0.1
6.2.1
0.30.0
18.3.0
Last Release Date
2026-04-30 (today)
2026-03-03 (1 month ago)
2019-03-01 (7 years ago)
2026-04-27 (3 days ago)
Last Update here
2006-08-23 (19 years ago)
2026-04-25 (5 days ago)
2019-03-04 (7 years ago)
2026-04-28 (2 days ago)
Author
Clay Alberty
WackoWiki Team
David Heinemeier Hansson, Jacques Distler, Matthias Tarasiewicz
XWiki Development Team
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
BSD
BSD
Ruby's
LGPL + Free hosting on https://myxwiki.org for individuals/non profit
Programming Language
C#
PHP
Ruby on Rails
Java
Data Storage
Database
Database
Database
Database, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
Free
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Advanced End Users, Developers, End Users/Desktop
general, education
Enterprise, Workgroups, Developers
Hosting Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Storage Quota
N/A
N/A
N/A
Bandwidth Quota
N/A
N/A
N/A
Other Limits
N/A
N/A
N/A
Topic Restrictions
N/A
N/A
N/A
Corporate Branding
N/A
N/A
N/A
Yes
Own Domain
N/A
N/A
N/A
Yes
Ads allowed
N/A
N/A
N/A
No
System Requirements ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Operating System
Windows
OS Independent
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X
Any platform supporting Java 17 or greater
Root Access
No
No
No
No
Webserver
IIS 5+
run with the appserver/webserver of your choice
Thin (included), or Apache/NGinx (via Passenger)
Servlet 5.0+
Other Requirements
.NET framework v2.0 or higher
mod_rewrite (optional)
Ruby 2.0-2.6
Java 17, MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL/HSQLDB/etc (JDBC Driver required)
Datastorage ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Text Files
Unknown
No
No
No
MySQL
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
PostgreSQL
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Oracle
Unknown
No
Plugin
Yes
SQLite
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
BerkeleyDB
Unknown
No
No
No
RCS
Unknown
No
No
Plugin
Other
SQLExpress or SQL 2000 or SQL 2005
MariaDB
Any Rails-compatible back-end datastore can be used.
JDBC Databases and in general any database supported by Hibernate; any custom implementation, as the storage is pluggable. Attachments can be saved on the filesystem
Security/Anti-Spam ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
No
Yes
No
Yes
Authentication Backends
.NET Membership platform
LDAP (patch), ActiveDirectory
XWiki, OpenID Connect, LDAP, custom (Open API), Kerberos, NTLM, Headers, PUMA, SAML, Trusted LDAP, Sun SSO
Host Blocking
No
Optional
Yes
No
Mail Encryption
No
Optional
Unknown
Yes
nofollow
No
Optional
Unknown
No
Blacklist
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
CAPTCHA
No
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Delayed Indexing
No
No
Unknown
Yes
Development/Support ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
Yes
No
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
N/A
55 ⭐
506 ⭐
N/A
Common Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Minor Changes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
No
Yes
No
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
No
Yes
No
Yes
Special Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Unicode Support
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Interface Languages
1
English
34
Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Estonian, Persian, Finnish, French, Hindi, Croatian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
1
English
40
Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Persian, French, Galician, Hindi, Croatian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Cambodian, Kannada, Korean, Lithuanian, Latvian, Lettish, Marathi, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish, Uighur, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
Email notification
No
Yes
No
Yes
Comments
No
Flat
No
Threaded
Categories
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
No
Yes
No
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
No
Unknown
Yes
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Unknown
Patch
Yes
Yes
Structured Data
Unknown
Plugin
No
Yes
Links ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
CamelCase
Optional
Optional
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
No
No
No
Yes
Image Links
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
No
Yes
No
Yes
Page Redirects
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Syntax Features ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
HTML Tags
Some
All
All
All
Math formulas
No
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Tables
none
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Unknown
No
No
Yes
Markdown Support
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Textile Support
Unknown
No
Yes
No
BBCode Support
Unknown
Patch
No
No
Emoticon Images
No
Yes
No
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Footnotes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Quoting
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Internal Comments
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
No
No
No
Plugin
Scripting
actions (PHP)
None
velocity, groovy, ruby, jython, generic JSR223 & very powerful API
Content Includes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
No
Yes
No
Yes
Usability ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Section Editing
No
Yes
No
Yes
Page Templates
No
Yes
No
Yes
Double-Click Edit
No
Yes
No
No
Toolbar
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
No
Plugin
No
Yes
Access Keys
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
No
Yes
Yes
No
Statistics ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Recent Changes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Orphaned Pages
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Most/Least Popular
Optional
Yes
No
Yes
Recent Visitors
No
Yes
No
Yes
Analysis
No
Plugin
No
Yes
Output ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print View
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
RSS Feeds
No
Yes
No
Yes
ATOM Feeds
No
No
Yes
Optional
Abbreviations
No
Patch
Yes
Plugin
Auto-TOC
No
Yes
Yes
Optional
Raw Export
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
XML export
No
Yes
No
Yes
PDF Export
No
Patch
No
Yes
Office Export
Unknown
Patch
Unknown
Yes
Media and Files ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
No
No
No
Yes
Embedded Flash
Unknown
Yes
No
Yes
Embedded Video
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Image Editing
No
No
No
Plugin
SVG Editing
No
No
Yes
Plugin
MindMap Editing
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
Media Search
Contents
No
Contents
Extras ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Calendar
Unknown
Plugin
No
Plugin
Image Galleries
Unknown
Plugin
No
Yes
Presentations
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Forums
Unknown
Optional
No
Plugin
Blogs
Unknown
Optional
No
Plugin
Ticket System
Unknown
No
No
Plugin
Chat
Unknown
Patch
Unknown
Plugin
Syntax Examples ProntoWiki WackoWiki Instiki XWiki
Internal Link
[pagename]
[[InternalLink]] 
((InternalLink))
[[InternalLink alternate text]]
CamelCase
[[Some Page]]
[[Some Page|anchor text]]
[[Some Page#anchor]]
[[Some Page#anchor|anchor text]]
XWiki supports 16+ input syntaxes (e.g. confluence, twiki, docbook, mediawiki, xwiki, markdown, etc), see http://rendering.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome#HSupportedSyntaxes for details.

The syntax documented below is XWiki Syntax 2.1 (http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/XWikiSyntax).

[[wiki syntax here>>Space.Page]]
[[Space.Page]]
(Space is optional and is the current space if not specified)
External Link
{title|url}
https://wackowiki.org
[[https://wackowiki.org WackoWiki]]
[[Wikipedia:WackoWiki]]
[another site](http://example.com)
[[wiki syntax here>>http://www.xwiki.com]]
http://www.xwiki.com
Headlines
!, !!, !!!
== Level 1 ==
=== Level 2 ===
==== Level 3 ====
===== Level 4 =====
====== Level 5 ======
#Level 1#
##Level 2##
###Level 3###
####Level 4####
#####Level 5#####
######Level 6######
= Headline
== Subheadline
=== Sub-subheadline
==== etc..
Bold Format
**bold**
**bold**
**bold**
**bold**
Italics Format
''italics''
//italics//
_italic_, *italic*
//Italics//
Underline Format
__under__
__underline__
underlined
{: style='text-decoration:underlined'}
__underline__
Monospace Format
##monospace##
`monospace`
##monospace##
Strikethrough Format
<<strike>> (using custom tags)
--strikethrough--
<del>strikethrough</del>
strikethrough
{: style='text-decoration:line-through'}
--Strike--
Superscript Format
<<super>> (using custom tags)
^^superscript^^
<sup>superscript</sup>
^^superscript^^
Subscript Format
<<sub>> (using custom tags)
,,subscript,,
<sub>subscript</sub>
,,subscript,,
Images
{guid} - this is displayed and can be inserted automatically for each image/page
((image.png))
file:image.png
https://example.com/image.png
![alt text](http://ex.com/image.jpg),
[[image.jpg|alt text:pic]]
image:img.png
image:Space.Page@img.png
[[image:img.png||width="25" height="25"]]
image:http://some/url/img.png

Starting with the xwiki/2.1 syntax, also:
image:icon:cancel
Aligning Text
available through custom tags
{html}<div align="right">{html}

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

> blockquote
Non-semantic text indentation through styling:

(% style="... css here..." %)multi line text

Quotes:

> This is a quoted text
Bulleted Lists
+
++
+++
++++
*one
**One-two
*two
*three
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
* List
** list
*** list
Numbered Lists
#
##
###
####
1. numbered List
1. numbered List-2
2.#8 numbered List, with break


1. Item 1
1. Item 1.1
2. Item 2
1. Item 1
11. Item 2
111. Item 3
1. Item 4
Definition Lists
{html}<dl>
<dt>Coffee</dt>
<dd>Black hot drink</dd>
<dt>Milk</dt>
<dd>White cold drink</dd>
</dl>{html}
term
: definition
; term
: definition
Horizontal Rule
----
***
----
remove ProntoWiki remove WackoWiki remove Instiki remove XWiki