CanvasWiki vs. DokuWiki vs. MediaWiki vs. PhpWiki vs. Instiki vs. ErfurtWiki

General Features CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Version
1.2.101
2020-07-29 "Hogfather"
1.32.2
phpwiki-1.3.14
0.30.0
R1.02b (kind of final release :-)
Last Release Date
2006-06-14 (17 years ago)
2020-07-19 (3 years ago)
2019-06-05 (4 years ago)
2007-06-30 (16 years ago)
2019-02-28 (5 years ago)
2005-06-15 (18 years ago)
Last Update here
2008-09-01 (15 years ago)
2021-08-09 (2 years ago)
2019-06-21 (4 years ago)
2009-04-03 (14 years ago)
2019-03-04 (5 years ago)
2010-04-04 (13 years ago)
Author
Raymond Camden
Andreas Gohr
Magnus Manske, Brion Vibber, Lee Daniel Crocker, Tim Starling, Erik Möller, and others.
Steve Wainstead, Jeff Dairiki, Reini Urban, Carsten Klapp, Marc-Etienne Vargenau
David Heinemeier Hansson, Jacques Distler, Matthias Tarasiewicz
Mario Salzer & Andi Fundinger
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
Apache
GPL 2
GPL
GPL
Ruby's
Public Domain (!)
Programming Language
ColdFusion
PHP
PHP
PHP
Ruby on Rails
PHP
Data Storage
Database
Files
Database
Database, Files, RCS
Database
Database, Files, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
0
0
0
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Mildly technical
personal, small to medium companies
End Users/Desktop, Education
Any
general, education
small + medium sites, development teams
System Requirements CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Operating System
Windows, Linux, Solaris
Linux, UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
*nix, Windows, Mac OS X
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X
any
Root Access
No
No
No
No
No
No
Webserver
Apache, IIS
Apache, IIS, Nginx, Lighttpd, anything with PHP support
Any with PHP support
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support
Thin (included), or Apache/NGinx (via Passenger)
anything with PHP support
Other Requirements
ColdFusion MX
none
various opt. helpers
Ruby 2.0-2.6
none
Datastorage CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Text Files
Unknown
Yes
No
Yes
No
Plugin
MySQL
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
PostgreSQL
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Oracle
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
No
SQLite
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
BerkeleyDB
Unknown
No
No
Yes
No
Plugin
RCS
Unknown
No
No
Yes
No
Plugin
Other
Access, SQL Server
None
No
gdbm, cvs, MSSQL, ... (ADODB, PearDB)
Any Rails-compatible back-end datastore can be used.
no
Security/Anti-Spam CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Page Permissions
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Authentication Backends
Textfile, LDAP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, ActiveDirectory
Yes
db, session, pop, imap, ldap, file, webserver
UNIX, LDAP, MySQL, PHP, other
Host Blocking
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Mail Encryption
Unknown
Optional
Plugin
No
Unknown
Plugin
nofollow
Unknown
Optional
Optional
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Blacklist
Unknown
Optional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
CAPTCHA
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Delayed Indexing
Unknown
Optional
No
No
Unknown
Patch
Development/Support CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#phpwiki
not yet :-)
Stars on GitHub
N/A
3582 ⭐
N/A
N/A
478 ⭐
N/A
Common Features CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Preview
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Minor Changes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Plugin
Page History
Yes
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
Plugin System
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Special Features CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Unicode Support
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Right-to-Left Support
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Patch
Interface Languages
0
68
Afrikaans, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Bengali; Bangla, Catalan, Czech, Welsh, Danish, German, Greek, English, Esperanto, Spanish, Estonian, Basque, Persian, Finnish, Faroese, French, Frisian, Galician, Hebrew, Hindi, Croatian, Hungarian, Interlingua, Indonesian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Georgian, Kazakh, Cambodian, Kannada, Korean, Kurdish, Latin, Lithuanian, Latvian, Lettish, Malagasy, Macedonian, Malayalam, Marathi, Malay, Nepali, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Albanian, Serbian, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
140
Afar, Abkhazian, Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Assamese, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Bihari, Bislama, Bengali; Bangla, Tibetan, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Czech, Welsh, Danish, German, Bhutani, Greek, English, Esperanto, Spanish, Estonian, Basque, Persian, Finnish, Fiji, Faroese, French, Frisian, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Galician, Guarani, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Croatian, Hungarian, Armenian, Interlingua, Indonesian, Interlingue, Inupiak, Icelandic, Italian, Inuktitut, Japanese, Georgian, Kazakh, Greenlandic, Cambodian, Kannada, Korean, Kashmiri, Kurdish, Kirghiz, Latin, Lingala, Laothian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Lettish, Malagasy, Maori, Macedonian, Malayalam, Mongolian, Moldavian, Marathi, Malay, Maltese, Burmese, Nauru, Nepali, Dutch, Norwegian, Occitan, Oromo, Oriya, Punjabi, Polish, Pashto, Pushto, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Quechua, Rhaeto-Romance, Kirundi, Romanian, Russian, Kinyarwanda, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Sangho, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Samoan, Shona, Somali, Albanian, Serbian, Siswati, Sesotho, Sundanese, Swedish, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Tajik, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkmen, Tagalog, Setswana, Tonga, Turkish, Tsonga, Tatar, Twi, Uighur, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Volapuk, Wolof, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, Zhuang, Chinese, Chinese Traditional, Zulu
9
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese Traditional
1
English
4
German, English, Spanish, Dutch
Email notification
Unknown
Optional
Optional
Yes
No
Plugin
Comments
Plugin
Discussion Pages
Plugin
No
Plugin
Categories
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Page Locking
Page Locking
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
No
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Optional
Structured Data
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Patch
No
No
Links CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Optional
No
Yes
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
SisterWiki
Unknown
No
No
No
No
Plugin
Image Links
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patch
Windows Shares
Unknown
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Page Redirects
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Syntax Features CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
HTML Tags
Optional
Some
Some
All
Plugin
Math formulas
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Yes
No
Tables
simple
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Unknown
Plugin
No
No
No
Optional
Markdown Support
Unknown
Plugin
No
No
Yes
No
Textile Support
Unknown
Plugin
No
No
Yes
No
BBCode Support
Unknown
Plugin
No
No
No
Plugin
Emoticon Images
Unknown
Yes
Optional
No
No
Plugin
Syntax Highlighting
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
Plugin
Footnotes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Quoting
Unknown
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Internal Comments
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Unknown
Plugin
No
No
No
Yes
Scripting
Optional, PHP
Optional
plugins, templates, PHP
None
optional
Content Includes
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Feed Aggregation
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
Usability CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Section Editing
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Page Templates
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Unknown
Plugin
Optional
Optional
No
Patch
Toolbar
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
WYSIWYG Editing
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Patch
No
No
Access Keys
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Auto Signature
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Statistics CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Recent Changes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Wanted Pages
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Orphaned Pages
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Most/Least Popular
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
No
Plugin
Recent Visitors
Unknown
No
Plugin
Yes
No
Optional
Analysis
Unknown
Plugin
Optional
Plugin
No
No
Output CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Printer Friendly
Print CSS
Print CSS
Print CSS
Print View
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Unknown
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Themes & Skins
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
RSS Feeds
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Plugin
ATOM Feeds
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Plugin
Abbreviations
Unknown
Yes
No
No
Yes
Optional
Auto-TOC
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Raw Export
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
XML export
Unknown
No
Yes
No
No
Optional
PDF Export
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
Optional
Office Export
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Media and Files CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
File Attachments
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Media Revisions
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Embedded Flash
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
Embedded Video
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
Plugin
Image Editing
Unknown
No
No
No
No
No
SVG Editing
Unknown
Plugin
No
No
Yes
No
MindMap Editing
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
No
No
No
Media Search
Filenames only
Keywords
No
No
No
Extras CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Calendar
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
Yes
No
Plugin
Image Galleries
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
No
Plugin
Presentations
Unknown
Plugin
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Forums
Unknown
No
Plugin
Yes
No
No
Blogs
Unknown
Plugin
No
Yes
No
Yes
Ticket System
Unknown
Plugin
No
No
No
No
Chat
Unknown
No
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Syntax Examples CanvasWiki DokuWiki MediaWiki PhpWiki Instiki ErfurtWiki
Internal Link
[[a Link]]
[[namespace:link]]
[[link|With a Title]]
[[a link]]
[[a link|with title]]
WikiWord or [somelink]
[ desc | pagename ]
[[Some Page]]
[[Some Page|anchor text]]
[[Some Page#anchor]]
[[Some Page#anchor|anchor text]]
WikiPage
[WikiPage | Go here]
External Link
[[http://example.com]]
[[http://example.com|With a Title]]
[http://example.org The title]
http://someserver/someurl
[ desc | exturl ]
[another site](http://example.com)
http://erfurtwiki.sf.net
[http://erfurtwiki.sf.net | Go here]
mario@wiki.net
Headlines
====== Level 1 ======
===== Level 2 =====
==== Level 3 ====
=== Level 4 ===
== Level 5 ==
==Section==
===Subsection===
====Sub-subsection====
!!!Headline1
!!Headline2
!Headline3
#Level 1#
##Level 2##
###Level 3###
####Level 4####
#####Level 5#####
######Level 6######
!!! Big Headline
!! Medium Headline
! Section Headline
Bold Format
**bold**
'''bold'''
*bold* or
<strong>bold</strong>
**bold**
__bold text__
**bold text**
Italics Format
//italics//
''italic''
_italics_ or 
or
<em>italics</em>
_italic_, *italic*
''ialic text''
Underline Format
__underlined__
<u>underlined</u>
<u>underlined</u>
underlined
{: style='text-decoration:underlined'}
optional or via css
Monospace Format
''monospace''
<tt>monospace</tt>
<tt>monospace</tt>
<code>code</code>
<pre>preformatted</pre>
<verbatim>
unparsed text</verbatim>


`monospace`
==monospaced text==
Strikethrough Format
<del>strikethrough</del>
<s>strikethrough</s>
<strike>striked through</strike>
<del>strikethrough</del>
strikethrough
{: style='text-decoration:line-through'}
optional or via css
Superscript Format
<sup>superscript</sup>
<sup>superscript</sup>
<sup>above</sup>
<sup>superscript</sup>
^^superscript text^^
Subscript Format
<sub>subscript</sub>
<sub>subscript</sub>
<sub>below</sub>
<sub>subscript</sub>
optional or via css
Images
{{local.jpg}}
{{http://foo.bar/baz.jpg}}
[[Image:wiki.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](http://ex.com/image.jpg),
[[image.jpg|alt text:pic]]
[link to the image.jpg]
Aligning Text
Plugin
<center>Centered</center>
<?plugin RawHtml <span align="right"> ?>right<?plugin RawHtml </span> ?>
or <div align="right"> right </div>

p{: style='text-align:left'}
p{: style='text-align:right'}
p{: style='text-align:center'}
p{: style='text-align:justify'}
optional or via css
Text Indentation
N/A
: indented line
;: left indent
;;: more left indent

or 
paragraph
and another level 
p
{: style='margin-left:3em'}

> blockquote
just use 3 spaces or tabs
indented text
Bulleted Lists
* item 1
* item 1.1
* item 2
* Item 1
** Item 1.2
* Item 2
* list
or
- list
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
* Item A
* Item B
** Item B1
Numbered Lists
- item 1
- item 1.1
- item 2
# Item 1
## Item 1.2
# Item 2
# list
1. Item 1
1. Item 1.1
2. Item 2
# Item 1
## Item 1.1
##* Item 1.1a
##* Item 1.1b

Definition Lists
Plugin
; term : definition
Term:<def>
def
term
: definition
:definition: explanation
:anotherdef: another description
Horizontal Rule
----
----
----
***
----
remove CanvasWiki remove DokuWiki remove MediaWiki remove PhpWiki remove Instiki remove ErfurtWiki