WackoWiki vs. Confluence vs. Instiki vs. Zwiki vs. XWiki

General Features WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Version
6.2.1
5.2
0.30.0
0.61
18.3.0
Last Release Date
2026-03-03 (1 month ago)
2013-08-13 (12 years ago)
2019-03-01 (7 years ago)
2008-10-28 (17 years ago)
2026-04-27 (3 days ago)
Last Update here
2026-04-25 (5 days ago)
2013-08-22 (12 years ago)
2019-03-04 (7 years ago)
2008-10-30 (17 years ago)
2026-04-28 (2 days ago)
Author
WackoWiki Team
Atlassian
David Heinemeier Hansson, Jacques Distler, Matthias Tarasiewicz
Simon Michael & the Zwiki dev team
XWiki Development Team
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
BSD
Commercial + Free personal/open source project/community use
Ruby's
GPLv2
LGPL + Free hosting on https://myxwiki.org for individuals/non profit
Programming Language
PHP
Java
Ruby on Rails
Python
Java
Data Storage
Database
Database
Database
Database
Database, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
0
starting at US $10 installed (unlimited wikis)
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Advanced End Users, Developers, End Users/Desktop
Enterprise + Technical Teams
general, education
anyone able to install or get access to a zope server
Enterprise, Workgroups, Developers
Hosting Features WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Storage Quota
N/A
Unlimited
N/A
N/A
Bandwidth Quota
N/A
N/A
N/A
Other Limits
N/A
No
N/A
N/A
Topic Restrictions
N/A
No
N/A
N/A
Corporate Branding
N/A
Yes
N/A
N/A
Yes
Own Domain
N/A
Optional
N/A
N/A
Yes
Ads allowed
N/A
No
N/A
N/A
No
System Requirements WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Operating System
OS Independent
Windows, Linux and Unix variants
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X
any
Any platform supporting Java 17 or greater
Root Access
No
No
No
No
No
Webserver
run with the appserver/webserver of your choice
Apache Tomcat
Thin (included), or Apache/NGinx (via Passenger)
Zope
Servlet 5.0+
Other Requirements
mod_rewrite (optional)
Oracle JDK 1.6.0_4+
Ruby 2.0-2.6
Java 17, MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL/HSQLDB/etc (JDBC Driver required)
Datastorage WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Text Files
No
No
No
Plugin
No
MySQL
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
PostgreSQL
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Oracle
No
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
SQLite
Yes
No
Yes
Unknown
No
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
Unknown
No
RCS
No
No
No
Unknown
Plugin
Other
MariaDB
Any Rails-compatible back-end datastore can be used.
ZODB (zope object database)
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 WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
LDAP (patch), ActiveDirectory
LDAP, NTLM, Siteminder, CAS and more
any supported by Zope authentication plugins
XWiki, OpenID Connect, LDAP, custom (Open API), Kerberos, NTLM, Headers, PUMA, SAML, Trusted LDAP, Sun SSO
Host Blocking
Optional
No
Yes
Patch
No
Mail Encryption
Optional
Optional
Unknown
Yes
Yes
nofollow
Optional
Optional
Unknown
Unknown
No
Blacklist
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
CAPTCHA
Yes
Yes
Unknown
No
Yes
Delayed Indexing
No
No
Unknown
Patch
Yes
Development/Support WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#zwiki on freenode
Stars on GitHub
55 ⭐
N/A
506 ⭐
N/A
N/A
Common Features WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Preview
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Special Features WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Yes
No
Yes
Optional
No
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
15
Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
1
English
0
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
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Comments
Flat
Threaded
No
Flat
Threaded
Categories
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Page Locking
Conflict Detection
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
No
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Patch
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Structured Data
Plugin
Plugin
No
Unknown
Yes
Links WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
CamelCase
Optional
Yes
Optional
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
No
No
No
No
Yes
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Yes
Yes
No
Unknown
Yes
Page Redirects
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Syntax Features WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
HTML Tags
All
Optional
All
Optional
All
Math formulas
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
No
No
No
No
Yes
Markdown Support
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Textile Support
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
BBCode Support
Patch
No
No
No
No
Emoticon Images
Yes
Yes
No
Patch
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Footnotes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Quoting
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Internal Comments
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
No
Yes
No
Optional
Plugin
Scripting
actions (PHP)
Macros, plugins, widgets, JavaScript and more
None
DTML
velocity, groovy, ruby, jython, generic JSR223 & very powerful API
Content Includes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Yes
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Usability WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Section Editing
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Page Templates
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Yes
No
No
Patch
No
Toolbar
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Access Keys
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Statistics WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Orphaned Pages
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Most/Least Popular
Yes
Yes
No
Optional
Yes
Recent Visitors
Yes
No
No
Plugin
Yes
Analysis
Plugin
Yes
No
No
Yes
Output WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print CSS
Print View
Print View
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Themes & Skins
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
ATOM Feeds
No
Yes
Yes
No
Optional
Abbreviations
Patch
No
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Auto-TOC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
XML export
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
PDF Export
Patch
Yes
No
Patch
Yes
Office Export
Patch
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Media and Files WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
File Attachments
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Embedded Flash
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Embedded Video
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Image Editing
No
Plugin
No
No
Plugin
SVG Editing
No
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
MindMap Editing
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
Plugin
Media Search
Contents
Contents
No
Filenames only
Contents
Extras WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Calendar
Plugin
Plugin
No
Unknown
Plugin
Image Galleries
Plugin
Yes
No
Unknown
Yes
Presentations
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Forums
Optional
Plugin
No
Unknown
Plugin
Blogs
Optional
Yes
No
Unknown
Plugin
Ticket System
No
Plugin
No
Unknown
Plugin
Chat
Patch
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Syntax Examples WackoWiki Confluence Instiki Zwiki XWiki
Internal Link
[[InternalLink]] 
((InternalLink))
[[InternalLink alternate text]]
CamelCase
[Page Title]
[Link Title|Page Title#anchor]
[~username]
[^attachment.doc]
[[Some Page]]
[[Some Page|anchor text]]
[[Some Page#anchor]]
[[Some Page#anchor|anchor text]]
WikiName
[freeform name]
[[double-bracketed]]
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
https://wackowiki.org
[[https://wackowiki.org WackoWiki]]
[[Wikipedia:WackoWiki]]
[http://www.example.com]
[Link Title|http://www.example.com]
[Shortcut Link|PageName@otherwiki]
[another site](http://example.com)
Bare urls plus markup-specific 
link syntax. This and all 
following syntax examples depend 
on which markup mode is used for 
a page, including:

restructured text, structured 
text, wikiwikiweb, moinmoin, 
html, plaintext..
[[wiki syntax here>>http://www.xwiki.com]]
http://www.xwiki.com
Headlines
== Level 1 ==
=== Level 2 ===
==== Level 3 ====
===== Level 4 =====
====== Level 5 ======
h1. Top Level Heading
h2. Smaller Heading
h6. Smallest Heading
#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
__underline__
+underline+
underlined
{: style='text-decoration:underlined'}
__underline__
Monospace Format
##monospace##
{{monospace}}
`monospace`
##monospace##
Strikethrough Format
--strikethrough--
-strikethrough-
<del>strikethrough</del>
strikethrough
{: style='text-decoration:line-through'}
--Strike--
Superscript Format
^^superscript^^
^superscript^
<sup>superscript</sup>
^^superscript^^
Subscript Format
,,subscript,,
~subscript~
<sub>subscript</sub>
,,subscript,,
Images
((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
{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
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
* 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


# one
## one-two
# two
# three
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 WackoWiki remove Confluence remove Instiki remove Zwiki remove XWiki