CanvasWiki vs. Instiki vs. PhpWiki vs. XWiki

General Features CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Version
1.2.101
0.30.0
phpwiki-1.3.14
16.3.0
Last Release Date
2006-06-14 (17 years ago)
2019-02-28 (5 years ago)
2007-06-30 (16 years ago)
2024-04-29 (3 days ago)
Last Update here
2008-09-01 (15 years ago)
2019-03-04 (5 years ago)
2009-04-03 (15 years ago)
2024-04-30 (2 days ago)
Author
Raymond Camden
David Heinemeier Hansson, Jacques Distler, Matthias Tarasiewicz
Steve Wainstead, Jeff Dairiki, Reini Urban, Carsten Klapp, Marc-Etienne Vargenau
XWiki Development Team
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
Apache
Ruby's
GPL
LGPL + Free hosting on https://myxwiki.org for individuals/non profit
Programming Language
ColdFusion
Ruby on Rails
PHP
Java
Data Storage
Database
Database
Database, Files, RCS
Database, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
0
0
0
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Mildly technical
general, education
Any
Enterprise, Workgroups, Developers
Hosting Features CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Storage Quota
N/A
N/A
N/A
Bandwidth Quota
N/A
N/A
N/A
Other Limits
N/A
N/A
N/A
Topic Restrictions
N/A
N/A
N/A
Corporate Branding
N/A
N/A
N/A
Yes
Own Domain
N/A
N/A
N/A
Yes
Ads allowed
N/A
N/A
N/A
No
System Requirements CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Operating System
Windows, Linux, Solaris
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Any platform supporting Java 11 or greater
Root Access
No
No
No
No
Webserver
Apache, IIS
Thin (included), or Apache/NGinx (via Passenger)
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support
Servlet 3.1+
Other Requirements
ColdFusion MX
Ruby 2.0-2.6
various opt. helpers
Java 11, MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL/HSQLDB/etc (JDBC Driver required)
Datastorage CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Text Files
Unknown
No
Yes
No
MySQL
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
PostgreSQL
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Oracle
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
Yes
SQLite
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
BerkeleyDB
Unknown
No
Yes
No
RCS
Unknown
No
Yes
Plugin
Other
Access, SQL Server
Any Rails-compatible back-end datastore can be used.
gdbm, cvs, MSSQL, ... (ADODB, PearDB)
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 CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Page Permissions
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
No
No
Yes
Yes
Authentication Backends
db, session, pop, imap, ldap, file, webserver
XWiki, LDAP, custom (Open API), Kerberos, NTLM, Headers, PUMA, SAML, Trusted LDAP, Sun SSO
Host Blocking
Unknown
Yes
No
No
Mail Encryption
Unknown
Unknown
No
Yes
nofollow
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
No
Blacklist
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Plugin
CAPTCHA
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Delayed Indexing
Unknown
Unknown
No
Yes
Development/Support CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
No
No
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#phpwiki
Stars on GitHub
N/A
478 ⭐
N/A
N/A
Common Features CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Preview
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Plugin System
No
No
Yes
Yes
Special Features CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Unicode Support
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Unknown
Yes
No
No
Interface Languages
0
1
English
9
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese Traditional
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
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Comments
No
Plugin
Threaded
Categories
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Namespaces
Unknown
No
No
Yes
Conflict Handling
Page Locking
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Structured Data
Unknown
No
Patch
Yes
Links CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Optional
Yes
Yes
Freelinks
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
InterWiki
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
SisterWiki
Unknown
No
No
Yes
Image Links
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Shares
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Page Redirects
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Syntax Features CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
HTML Tags
All
Some
All
Math formulas
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Unknown
No
No
Yes
Markdown Support
Unknown
Yes
No
Yes
Textile Support
Unknown
Yes
No
No
BBCode Support
Unknown
No
No
No
Emoticon Images
Unknown
No
No
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Footnotes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Quoting
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Internal Comments
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom styles
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Unknown
No
No
Plugin
Scripting
None
plugins, templates, PHP
velocity, groovy, ruby, jython, generic JSR223 & very powerful API
Content Includes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Usability CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Section Editing
Unknown
No
No
Yes
Page Templates
No
No
Yes
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Unknown
No
Optional
No
Toolbar
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
Unknown
No
Patch
Yes
Access Keys
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Auto Signature
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Statistics CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Recent Changes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wanted Pages
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Orphaned Pages
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Most/Least Popular
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Recent Visitors
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Analysis
Unknown
No
Plugin
Yes
Output CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Printer Friendly
Print View
Print CSS
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Unknown
Yes
No
Yes
Themes & Skins
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Unknown
Yes
No
Optional
Abbreviations
Unknown
Yes
No
Plugin
Auto-TOC
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Optional
Raw Export
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
HTML Export
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
XML export
Unknown
No
No
Yes
PDF Export
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Office Export
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Media and Files CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
File Attachments
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Embedded Flash
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Embedded Video
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Image Editing
Unknown
No
No
Plugin
SVG Editing
Unknown
Yes
No
Plugin
MindMap Editing
Unknown
No
No
Plugin
Media Search
No
No
Contents
Extras CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Calendar
Unknown
No
Yes
Plugin
Image Galleries
Unknown
No
Yes
Yes
Presentations
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Forums
Unknown
No
Yes
Plugin
Blogs
Unknown
No
Yes
Plugin
Ticket System
Unknown
No
No
Plugin
Chat
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Syntax Examples CanvasWiki Instiki PhpWiki XWiki
Internal Link
[[Some Page]]
[[Some Page|anchor text]]
[[Some Page#anchor]]
[[Some Page#anchor|anchor text]]
WikiWord or [somelink]
[ desc | pagename ]
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
[another site](http://example.com)
http://someserver/someurl
[ desc | exturl ]
[[wiki syntax here>>http://www.xwiki.com]]
http://www.xwiki.com
Headlines
#Level 1#
##Level 2##
###Level 3###
####Level 4####
#####Level 5#####
######Level 6######
!!!Headline1
!!Headline2
!Headline3
= Headline
== Subheadline
=== Sub-subheadline
==== etc..
Bold Format
**bold**
*bold* or
<strong>bold</strong>
**bold**
Italics Format
_italic_, *italic*
_italics_ or 
or
<em>italics</em>
//Italics//
Underline Format
underlined
{: style='text-decoration:underlined'}
<u>underlined</u>
__underline__
Monospace Format
`monospace`
<tt>monospace</tt>
<code>code</code>
<pre>preformatted</pre>
<verbatim>
unparsed text</verbatim>


##monospace##
Strikethrough Format
<del>strikethrough</del>
strikethrough
{: style='text-decoration:line-through'}
<strike>striked through</strike>
--Strike--
Superscript Format
<sup>superscript</sup>
<sup>above</sup>
^^superscript^^
Subscript Format
<sub>subscript</sub>
<sub>below</sub>
,,subscript,,
Images
![alt text](http://ex.com/image.jpg),
[[image.jpg|alt text:pic]]
[ 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
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
p{: style='text-align:left'}
p{: style='text-align:right'}
p{: style='text-align:center'}
p{: style='text-align:justify'}
<?plugin RawHtml <span align="right"> ?>right<?plugin RawHtml </span> ?>
or <div align="right"> right </div>

(% style="... css here..." %)Text
Text Indentation
p
{: style='margin-left:3em'}

> blockquote
;: left indent
;;: more left indent

or 
paragraph
and another level 
Non-semantic text indentation through styling:

(% style="... css here..." %)multi line text

Quotes:

> This is a quoted text
Bulleted Lists
* Item 1
** Item 1.1
* Item 2
* list
or
- list
* List
** list
*** list
Numbered Lists
1. Item 1
1. Item 1.1
2. Item 2
# list
1. Item 1
11. Item 2
111. Item 3
1. Item 4
Definition Lists
term
: definition
Term:<def>
def
; term
: definition
Horizontal Rule
***
----
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remove CanvasWiki remove Instiki remove PhpWiki remove XWiki