WackoWiki vs. BrainKeeper vs. PhpWiki vs. ikiwiki

General Features WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Version
6.2.1
N/A
phpwiki-1.3.14
2.67
Last Release Date
2026-03-03 (3 months ago)
N/A
2007-07-01 (18 years ago)
2008-10-17 (17 years ago)
Last Update here
2026-04-25 (1 month ago)
2008-01-12 (18 years ago)
2009-04-03 (17 years ago)
2008-10-28 (17 years ago)
Author
WackoWiki Team
BrainKeeper, Inc.
Steve Wainstead, Jeff Dairiki, Reini Urban, Carsten Klapp, Marc-Etienne Vargenau
Joey Hess and the ikiwiki community
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
N/A
Yes
Yes
License
BSD
N/A
GPL
GPL
Programming Language
PHP
N/A
PHP
Perl
Data Storage
Database
N/A
Database, Files, RCS
Files, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
0
from $35 for 9 logins, scaled pricing from there
0
0
Development status
Mature
N/A
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Advanced End Users, Developers, End Users/Desktop
Enterprise, Corporations, and Business Teams
Any
Anyone
Hosting Features WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Storage Quota
N/A
Unlimited
N/A
N/A
Bandwidth Quota
N/A
Unlimited
N/A
N/A
Other Limits
N/A
None
N/A
N/A
Topic Restrictions
N/A
No Restrictions
N/A
N/A
Corporate Branding
N/A
Yes
N/A
N/A
Own Domain
N/A
Yes
N/A
N/A
Ads allowed
N/A
No
N/A
N/A
System Requirements WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Operating System
OS Independent
N/A
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Any
Root Access
No
N/A
No
No
Webserver
run with the appserver/webserver of your choice
N/A
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support
Any, or none
Other Requirements
mod_rewrite (optional)
N/A
various opt. helpers
Datastorage WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Text Files
No
N/A
Yes
Yes
MySQL
Yes
N/A
Yes
No
PostgreSQL
No
N/A
Yes
No
Oracle
No
N/A
Yes
No
SQLite
Yes
N/A
Yes
No
BerkeleyDB
No
N/A
Yes
No
RCS
No
N/A
Yes
Yes
Other
MariaDB
N/A
gdbm, cvs, MSSQL, ... (ADODB, PearDB)
Security/Anti-Spam WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
LDAP (patch), ActiveDirectory
N/A
db, session, pop, imap, ldap, file, webserver
Built-in, HTTP auth, OpenID; extensible via plugins
Host Blocking
Optional
Unknown
No
Yes
Mail Encryption
Optional
Unknown
No
Yes
nofollow
Optional
Unknown
Yes
No
Blacklist
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
CAPTCHA
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Delayed Indexing
No
No
No
No
Development/Support WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
N/A
No
No
Code Repository
N/A
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#phpwiki
Stars on GitHub
54 ⭐
N/A
N/A
N/A
Common Features WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special Features WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Yes
Unknown
No
Yes
Interface Languages
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
9
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese Traditional
1
English
Email notification
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Comments
Flat
Flat
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Namespaces
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
No
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Patch
N/A
Yes
Yes
Structured Data
Plugin
Unknown
Patch
Unknown
Links WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
CamelCase
Optional
No
Yes
Plugin
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
SisterWiki
No
No
No
Plugin
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Redirects
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Syntax Features WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
HTML Tags
All
Some
Some
Optional
Math formulas
Plugin
No
Plugin
Plugin
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
No
Unknown
No
No
Markdown Support
No
Unknown
No
Yes
Textile Support
No
Unknown
No
Plugin
BBCode Support
Patch
Unknown
No
No
Emoticon Images
Yes
No
No
Plugin
Syntax Highlighting
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Footnotes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Quoting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Internal Comments
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
No
Yes
No
Yes
Scripting
actions (PHP)
plugins, templates, PHP
safe subset of HTML::Template supported via template plugin
Content Includes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Feed Aggregation
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Usability WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Section Editing
Yes
Yes
No
No
Page Templates
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Yes
No
Optional
No
Toolbar
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
Yes
Patch
No
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Auto Signature
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Statistics WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Orphaned Pages
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Most/Least Popular
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Recent Visitors
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Analysis
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
No
Output WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print CSS
Print CSS
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Unknown
No
Yes
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
ATOM Feeds
No
Yes
No
Plugin
Abbreviations
Patch
No
No
No
Auto-TOC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
XML export
Yes
Yes
No
No
PDF Export
Patch
Yes
Yes
No
Office Export
Patch
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
File Attachments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Embedded Flash
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Embedded Video
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Image Editing
No
Yes
No
No
SVG Editing
No
Unknown
No
No
MindMap Editing
Plugin
No
No
No
Media Search
Contents
Contents
No
Filenames only
Extras WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Calendar
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Image Galleries
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Presentations
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Forums
Optional
Unknown
Yes
Unknown
Blogs
Optional
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Ticket System
No
Unknown
No
Yes
Chat
Patch
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples WackoWiki BrainKeeper PhpWiki ikiwiki
Internal Link
[[InternalLink]] 
((InternalLink))
[[InternalLink alternate text]]
CamelCase
WikiWord or [somelink]
[ desc | pagename ]
[[internal]]
External Link
https://wackowiki.org
[[https://wackowiki.org WackoWiki]]
[[Wikipedia:WackoWiki]]
http://someserver/someurl
[ desc | exturl ]
[link text](http://example.org)
Headlines
== Level 1 ==
=== Level 2 ===
==== Level 3 ====
===== Level 4 =====
====== Level 5 ======
!!!Headline1
!!Headline2
!Headline3
Two syntaxes:

# heading 1
## heading 2
### heading 3

heading 1
=========

heading 2
---------
Bold Format
**bold**
*bold* or
<strong>bold</strong>
**bold**
__bold__
Italics Format
//italics//
_italics_ or 
or
<em>italics</em>
*emphasized*
_emphasized_
Underline Format
__underline__
<u>underlined</u>
via HTML: <u>underlined</u>
Monospace Format
##monospace##
<tt>monospace</tt>
<code>code</code>
<pre>preformatted</pre>
<verbatim>
unparsed text</verbatim>


`inline monospace`

indented block of
monospaced text

tab-indented
block
Strikethrough Format
--strikethrough--
<strike>striked through</strike>
via HTML: <del>deleted</del>
Superscript Format
^^superscript^^
<sup>above</sup>
via HTML: x<sup>2</sup>
Subscript Format
,,subscript,,
<sub>below</sub>
via HTML: a<sub>1</sub>
Images
((image.png))
file:image.png
https://example.com/image.png
[ 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
![alt text](internal/image)
![alt text](http://example.org/external/image)
Aligning Text
{html}<div align="right">{html}

%%(wacko wrapper="text" wrapper_align="center")
content%%
<?plugin RawHtml <span align="right"> ?>right<?plugin RawHtml </span> ?>
or <div align="right"> right </div>

Text Indentation
one
two
;: left indent
;;: more left indent

or 
paragraph
and another level 
Bulleted Lists
*one
**One-two
*two
*three
* list
or
- list
* item 1
* item 2
* item 2.1
* item 2.2
Numbered Lists
1. numbered List
1. numbered List-2
2.#8 numbered List, with break


# list
1. item 1
2. item 2
1. item 1.1
42. the value doesn't matter
1. any value works
Definition Lists
{html}<dl>
<dt>Coffee</dt>
<dd>Black hot drink</dd>
<dt>Milk</dt>
<dd>White cold drink</dd>
</dl>{html}
Term:<def>
def
via HTML:
<dl>
<dt>term</dt>
<dd>definition</dd>
</dl>
Horizontal Rule
----
----
---
***
___
------------------
Any number > 3
- - - - - - - - - -
spaces don't matter
remove WackoWiki remove BrainKeeper remove PhpWiki remove ikiwiki