PukiWiki vs. Foswiki vs. PmWiki vs. alphawiki

General Features PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Version
1.5.1
2.1.11
2.7.4
v.20160608
Last Release Date
2016-03-07 (10 years ago)
2026-03-15 (5 months ago)
2026-07-31 (22 days ago)
2016-08-06 (10 years ago)
Last Update here
2016-03-23 (10 years ago)
2026-03-15 (5 months ago)
2026-07-31 (22 days ago)
2016-09-10 (9 years ago)
Author
PukiWiki Development Team
Foswiki Community
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
marty alain
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL version 2 or (at your option) any later version
GPL
GPL2+
GNU-GPL
Programming Language
PHP
Perl
PHP
PHP+Javascript
Data Storage
Files
Files, RCS
Files
Files
License Cost/ Fee
0
$0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
One theme, one PukiWiki
Enterprise, Corporate, Business, Intranets, Personal use, Community building, Educational, Intranet, Extranet
All
private users, small teams
System Requirements PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Operating System
OS independent
Linux, Windows, OS-X and others
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
probably every OS
Root Access
No
No
No
Yes
Webserver
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support
Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, or any other supporting (F)CGI
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support. Can also be run with PHP's built-in webserver.
Apache with PHP support
Other Requirements
tar with "-p" option, or unzip for install. "mbstring" PHP extension for multi-bite support. backup feature wants 'zip' PHP extension.
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
none
Datastorage PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Text Files
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
MySQL
No
No
Plugin
No
PostgreSQL
No
No
No
No
Oracle
No
No
No
No
SQLite
No
No
Plugin
No
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
No
RCS
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Other
zip-compressed text files for backup (with "zip" PHP extension)
caching of content into database using plugins
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
None
Security/Anti-Spam PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
LDIF strings compatible with OpenLDAP, LDAP
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
Internal: per page, per group, per user, per user group. External: .htpasswd, LDAP, Active Directory. Plugins: Mailman, forums w/MySQL, oAuth, custom possible.
No
Host Blocking
Patch
Plugin
Optional
No
Mail Encryption
No
Yes
Optional
No
nofollow
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Blacklist
Patch
Plugin
Optional
No
CAPTCHA
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Delayed Indexing
No
Plugin
Optional
No
Development/Support PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#pukiwiki
Stars on GitHub
N/A
118 ⭐
N/A
N/A
Common Features PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
No
Yes
Yes
No
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Restricted by Number
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
To current
Between all
Between all
No
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
No
No
Optional
Unknown
Interface Languages
5
German, English, Japanese, Korean, Twi
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
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
1
English
Email notification
Yes
Yes
Optional
No
Comments
Plugin
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Discussion Pages
Categories
No
Plugin
Yes
Unknown
Namespaces
No
Yes
Yes
Optional
Conflict Handling
Conflict Detection
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
No
Yes
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
No
Plugin
Yes
No
Structured Data
No
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Links PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
CamelCase
Yes
Yes
Optional
No
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
InterWiki
Yes
Plugin
Yes
No
SisterWiki
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Patch
Plugin
Yes
No
Page Redirects
No
Plugin
Yes
No
Syntax Features PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
HTML Tags
Plugin
All
Plugin
Optional
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Tables
complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
No
Plugin
Optional
No
Markdown Support
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Textile Support
No
Plugin
No
No
BBCode Support
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Emoticon Images
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
No
Syntax Highlighting
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
No
Footnotes
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Quoting
Optional
Yes
Plugin
No
Internal Comments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
No
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Scripting
plugins(PHP), skins(PHP), CSSes(PHP,CSS)
JavaScript; Topic Markup Language
MarkupExpressions (core, many add-ons). PageLists with templates (core structured data scripting). WikiSh (plugin), Data forms (optional)
lambdatalk, lambdalisp,javascript
Content Includes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
No
Usability PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Section Editing
Patch
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Toolbar
Patch
Plugin
Optional
No
WYSIWYG Editing
No
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Auto Signature
No
Yes
Yes
Optional
Statistics PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
Plugin
No
Optional
No
Orphaned Pages
No
Plugin
Optional
No
Most/Least Popular
Plugin
Yes
No
No
Recent Visitors
No
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Analysis
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Output PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Printer Friendly
Print CSS
Print View
Print View
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Plugin
Yes
Optional
No
ATOM Feeds
Plugin
Yes
Optional
No
Abbreviations
No
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Auto-TOC
Plugin
Yes
Optional
Yes
Raw Export
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Optional
HTML Export
No
Yes
Plugin
Optional
XML export
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
PDF Export
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Office Export
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Media and Files PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
File Attachments
Plugin
Yes
Optional
Yes
Media Revisions
No
Yes
Optional
No
Embedded Flash
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Embedded Video
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Image Editing
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
No
SVG Editing
No
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
MindMap Editing
No
Plugin
Plugin
No
Media Search
No
Contents
Filenames only
No
Extras PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Image Galleries
No
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Presentations
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Unknown
Forums
Optional
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Blogs
Optional
Plugin
Plugin
Optional
Ticket System
Optional
Plugin
Plugin
No
Chat
Unknown
No
No
Unknown
Syntax Examples PukiWiki Foswiki PmWiki alphawiki
Internal Link
PageNameAsWikiName
[[PageName]]
[[link text>PageName]]
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
[[page name]]
[[page name | link text]]
[[link text -> page name]]
[[#anchor]]
[[#anchor|link to anchor]]
[[page name #anchor]]
1) standard syntax :
{a {@ href="?view=pixar"}pixar}
2) alternate wiki form :
[[pixar]]
External Link
http://....
[[link text>http://....]]
[[interwiki:keyphrase]]
[[link text>interwiki:keyphrase]]
External Link
http://foswiki.org/ autolink
[[http://foswiki.org/][label]]
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
1) standard syntax :
{a {@ href="http://www.pixar.com/"}pixar}
2) alternate wiki form :
[[pixar|http://www.pixar.com/]]
Headlines
* Level 1
** Level 2
*** Level 3
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
! Level 1
!!#anchor Level 2
!!! Level 3
1) standard syntax :
{h1 TITLE} from 1 to 6
2) alternate form :
_h1 TITLE (until end of line)
Bold Format
''bold''
*bold*
'''bold'''
{b I am bold}
Italics Format
'''italic'''
_italic_
''italic''
{i I am italic}
Underline Format
%%%underlined%%%
<u>underline</u>
{+underlined+}
{u I am underline}
Monospace Format
N/A
=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
@@monospace@@
{pre I am monospace and preformated}
Strikethrough Format
%%strikethrough%%
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
{-strikethrough-}
{del I am line-through}
Superscript Format
N/A
<sup>superscript</sup>
'^superscript^'
E = mc{sup 2}
Subscript Format
N/A
<sub>subscript</sub>
'_subscript_'
Vector low indiced : V{sub i} 
Vector high indiced: V{sup i}
Tensor : T{sub i}{sup j}
Images
#ref(pagename/filename[,option])
&ref(pagename/filename[,option]);
&ref(http://foo.bar/foo.jpg[,option]);
http://foo.bar/foo.jpg
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
%IMAGE{"image.png"}%
https://foo.bar/foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg"alt/title text" | Caption
1) static image, simple :
{img {@ src="data/image.jpg"}}

2) static image, complete :
{img 
{@ src="data/image.jpg"  
height="200"
title="infotext"
}}

3) click_enlarging image :
{show 
{@ src="data/image.jpg"
height="200" 
width="400" 
title="infotext"
}}
Aligning Text
CENTER:center
RIGHT:right
LEFT:left
| 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
{center I am centered}
Text Indentation
N/A
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
{p I am an indented paragraph.}
Bulleted Lists
- Item 1
-- Item 1.1
- Item 2
* Item 1
* Item 1.1
* Item 2
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
alternatively, indented:
* item 1
* item 1.1
* item 2
1) standard :
{ul
{li item 1}
{li item 2}
}

2) alternative :
_ul item 1
_ul item 2
Numbered Lists
+ Item 1
++ Item 1.1
+ Item 2
1. Item 1
a. Item 1.a
1. Item 2
# Item 1
## Item 1.1
# Item 2
alternatively, indented:
# Item 1
# Item 1.1
# Item 2
1) standard :
{ol
{li item 1}
{li item 2}
}

2) alternative :
_ol item 1
_ol item 2
Definition Lists
:term|definition
$ Term: Definition
: term : definition
{dl
{dt one} 
{dd definition 1}
{dt two} 
{dd definition 2}
}
Horizontal Rule
--------------------
---
----
{hr}
remove PukiWiki remove Foswiki remove PmWiki remove alphawiki