Anwiki vs. Instiki vs. PmWiki vs. WackoWiki

General Features Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Version
0.2.5
0.30.0
2.6.0
6.2.1
Last Release Date
2010-12-13 (15 years ago)
2019-03-01 (7 years ago)
2026-05-16 (22 days ago)
2026-03-03 (3 months ago)
Last Update here
2013-06-25 (12 years ago)
2019-03-04 (7 years ago)
2026-05-16 (22 days ago)
2026-04-25 (1 month ago)
Author
Antoine Walter
David Heinemeier Hansson, Jacques Distler, Matthias Tarasiewicz
Petko Yotov (Original author: Patrick R. Michaud)
WackoWiki Team
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
GPL 3
Ruby's
GPL2+
BSD
Programming Language
PHP
Ruby on Rails
PHP
PHP
Data Storage
Database, Files
Database
Files
Database
License Cost/ Fee
0
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Designed for multilingual contents and/or structured contents. Light, extensive and overridable architecture.
general, education
All
Advanced End Users, Developers, End Users/Desktop
System Requirements Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Operating System
Linux, Windows, probably others
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
OS Independent
Root Access
No
No
No
No
Webserver
Apache, probably others with PHP support
Thin (included), or Apache/NGinx (via Passenger)
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support. Can also be run with PHP's built-in webserver.
run with the appserver/webserver of your choice
Other Requirements
Ruby 2.0-2.6
none
mod_rewrite (optional)
Datastorage Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Text Files
No
No
Yes
No
MySQL
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
PostgreSQL
No
Yes
No
No
Oracle
No
Plugin
No
No
SQLite
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
BerkeleyDB
No
No
No
No
RCS
No
No
Plugin
No
Other
Extensible to any datastorage by implementing a custom driver
Any Rails-compatible back-end datastore can be used.
Compressed, XML and/or ephemeral files (modules). Can provide custom data backends.
MariaDB
Security/Anti-Spam Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Page Permissions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
Extensible to any authentication backend by implementing a custom driver
Internal: per page, per group, per user, per user group. External: .htpasswd, LDAP, Active Directory. Plugins: Mailman, forums w/MySQL, oAuth, custom possible.
LDAP (patch), ActiveDirectory
Host Blocking
No
Yes
Optional
Optional
Mail Encryption
No
Unknown
Optional
Optional
nofollow
No
Unknown
Yes
Optional
Blacklist
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
CAPTCHA
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Delayed Indexing
No
Unknown
Optional
No
Development/Support Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
No
Yes
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
Stars on GitHub
4 ⭐
506 ⭐
N/A
54 ⭐
Common Features Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Preview
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Restricted by Age or Number
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Special Features Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Unicode Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Interface Languages
5
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian
1
English
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
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
Email notification
No
No
Optional
Yes
Comments
No
No
Discussion Pages
Flat
Categories
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Page Locking
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
No
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Patch
Structured Data
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Links Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
CamelCase
No
Optional
Optional
Optional
Freelinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
No
No
Plugin
No
Image Links
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Page Redirects
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Syntax Features Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
HTML Tags
All
All
Plugin
All
Math formulas
No
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Tables
none
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
No
No
Optional
No
Markdown Support
No
Yes
Plugin
No
Textile Support
No
Yes
No
No
BBCode Support
No
No
Plugin
Patch
Emoticon Images
Plugin
No
Plugin
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
Footnotes
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Quoting
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Internal Comments
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Unknown
No
Yes
No
Scripting
Javascript ; PHP scripts can be enabled
None
MarkupExpressions (core, many add-ons). PageLists with templates (core structured data scripting). WikiSh (plugin), Data forms (optional)
actions (PHP)
Content Includes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Usability Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Section Editing
No
No
Plugin
Yes
Page Templates
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
No
No
Plugin
Yes
Toolbar
No
No
Optional
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
No
No
Plugin
Plugin
Access Keys
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Statistics Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Recent Changes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
Orphaned Pages
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
Most/Least Popular
No
No
No
Yes
Recent Visitors
No
No
Plugin
Yes
Analysis
No
No
Plugin
Plugin
Output Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print View
Print View
Mobile Friendly
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Yes
No
Optional
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Unknown
Yes
Optional
No
Abbreviations
No
Yes
Plugin
Patch
Auto-TOC
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Raw Export
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
No
Yes
Plugin
Yes
XML export
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
PDF Export
No
No
Plugin
Patch
Office Export
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Patch
Media and Files Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
File Attachments
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
Media Revisions
No
No
Optional
No
Embedded Flash
Yes
No
Plugin
Yes
Embedded Video
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Image Editing
No
No
Plugin
No
SVG Editing
No
Yes
Plugin
No
MindMap Editing
No
No
Plugin
Plugin
Media Search
No
No
Filenames only
Contents
Extras Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Calendar
No
No
Plugin
Plugin
Image Galleries
No
No
Plugin
Plugin
Presentations
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Forums
No
No
Plugin
Optional
Blogs
No
No
Plugin
Optional
Ticket System
No
No
Plugin
No
Chat
Unknown
Unknown
No
Patch
Syntax Examples Anwiki Instiki PmWiki WackoWiki
Internal Link
<a href="en/home">go home</a>
[[Some Page]]
[[Some Page|anchor text]]
[[Some Page#anchor]]
[[Some Page#anchor|anchor text]]
[[page name]]
[[page name | link text]]
[[link text -> page name]]
[[#anchor]]
[[#anchor|link to anchor]]
[[page name #anchor]]
[[InternalLink]] 
((InternalLink))
[[InternalLink alternate text]]
CamelCase
External Link
<a href="http://www.anwiki.com">Anwiki</a>
[another site](http://example.com)
http://....
[[http://... | link text]]
[[link text -> http://...]]
https://wackowiki.org
[[https://wackowiki.org WackoWiki]]
[[Wikipedia:WackoWiki]]
Headlines
<h1>Title</h2>
<h2>Subtitle</h2>
...
#Level 1#
##Level 2##
###Level 3###
####Level 4####
#####Level 5#####
######Level 6######
! Level 1
!!#anchor Level 2
!!! Level 3
== Level 1 ==
=== Level 2 ===
==== Level 3 ====
===== Level 4 =====
====== Level 5 ======
Bold Format
<b>bold</b>
**bold**
'''bold'''
**bold**
Italics Format
<i>italic</i>
_italic_, *italic*
''italic''
//italics//
Underline Format
<u>underline</u>
underlined
{: style='text-decoration:underlined'}
{+underlined+}
__underline__
Monospace Format
<tt>monospace</tt>
`monospace`
@@monospace@@
##monospace##
Strikethrough Format
<del>strikethrough</del>
<del>strikethrough</del>
strikethrough
{: style='text-decoration:line-through'}
{-strikethrough-}
--strikethrough--
Superscript Format
<sup>Anwiki</sup>
<sup>superscript</sup>
'^superscript^'
^^superscript^^
Subscript Format
<sub>Anwiki</sub>
<sub>subscript</sub>
'_subscript_'
,,subscript,,
Images
<img src=""/>
![alt text](http://ex.com/image.jpg),
[[image.jpg|alt text:pic]]
https://foo.bar/foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg
Attach:foo.jpg"alt/title text" | Caption
((image.png))
file:image.png
https://example.com/image.png
Aligning Text
<center>anwiki</center>
p{: style='text-align:left'}
p{: style='text-align:right'}
p{: style='text-align:center'}
p{: style='text-align:justify'}
%center% centered text
%right% right aligned
%lfloat% left floating text
%rfloat% right floating text
%rframe% right floating frame
%lframe% left floating frame
{html}<div align="right">{html}

%%(wacko wrapper="text" wrapper_align="center")
content%%
Text Indentation
p
{: style='margin-left:3em'}

> blockquote
-> indented text
--> more indentation
-< hanging text
--< more indentation
one
two
Bulleted Lists
<ul>
<li>item</li>
<li>item</li>
</ul>
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
alternatively, indented:
* item 1
* item 1.1
* item 2
*one
**One-two
*two
*three
Numbered Lists
<ol>
<li>item</li>
<li>item</li>
</ol>
1. Item 1
1. Item 1.1
2. Item 2
# Item 1
## Item 1.1
# Item 2
alternatively, indented:
# Item 1
# Item 1.1
# Item 2
1. numbered List
1. numbered List-2
2.#8 numbered List, with break


Definition Lists
<dl>
<dt>item</dt>
<dt>item</dt>
</dl>
term
: definition
: term : definition
{html}<dl>
<dt>Coffee</dt>
<dd>Black hot drink</dd>
<dt>Milk</dt>
<dd>White cold drink</dd>
</dl>{html}
Horizontal Rule
<hr/>
***
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remove Anwiki remove Instiki remove PmWiki remove WackoWiki