CanvasWiki vs. PhpWiki vs. TWiki vs. ProntoWiki vs. XWiki

General Features CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Version
1.2.101
phpwiki-1.3.14
TWiki-6.1.0
1.0.1
16.3.0
Last Release Date
2006-06-14 (17 years ago)
2007-06-30 (16 years ago)
2018-07-15 (5 years ago)
2024-05-01 (1 day ago)
2024-04-29 (3 days ago)
Last Update here
2008-09-01 (15 years ago)
2009-04-03 (15 years ago)
2019-07-19 (4 years ago)
2006-08-23 (17 years ago)
2024-04-30 (2 days ago)
Author
Raymond Camden
Steve Wainstead, Jeff Dairiki, Reini Urban, Carsten Klapp, Marc-Etienne Vargenau
Peter Thoeny, TWiki community
Clay Alberty
XWiki Development Team
URL
Free and Open Source
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
License
Apache
GPL
GPL
BSD
LGPL + Free hosting on https://myxwiki.org for individuals/non profit
Programming Language
ColdFusion
PHP
Perl, JavaScript
C#
Java
Data Storage
Database
Database, Files, RCS
Files, RCS
Database
Database, RCS
License Cost/ Fee
0
0
N/A
Free
0
Development status
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Mature
Intended Audience
Mildly technical
Any
Large enterprise; small to medium businesses
Enterprise, Workgroups, Developers
Hosting Features CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Storage Quota
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Bandwidth Quota
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Other Limits
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Topic Restrictions
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Corporate Branding
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Yes
Own Domain
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Yes
Ads allowed
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
No
System Requirements CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Operating System
Windows, Linux, Solaris
UNIX, Windows, MacOS X, probably others
Linux, Windows, OS-X and other
Windows
Any platform supporting Java 11 or greater
Root Access
No
No
No
No
No
Webserver
Apache, IIS
Apache, IIS, anything with PHP support
Almost any webserver, typically Apache and Ngnix
IIS 5+
Servlet 3.1+
Other Requirements
ColdFusion MX
various opt. helpers
RCS (optional), cron/scheduler, fgrep, egrep; Plugins may have additional dependencies
.NET framework v2.0 or higher
Java 11, MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL/HSQLDB/etc (JDBC Driver required)
Datastorage CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Text Files
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Unknown
No
MySQL
Yes
Yes
No
Unknown
Yes
PostgreSQL
Unknown
Yes
No
Unknown
Yes
Oracle
Unknown
Yes
No
Unknown
Yes
SQLite
Unknown
Yes
No
Unknown
No
BerkeleyDB
Unknown
Yes
No
Unknown
No
RCS
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Plugin
Other
Access, SQL Server
gdbm, cvs, MSSQL, ... (ADODB, PearDB)
RcsLite Perl library for version control without external RCS; backend API for other storage
SQLExpress or SQL 2000 or SQL 2005
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 PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Page Permissions
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ACL
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Authentication Backends
db, session, pop, imap, ldap, file, webserver
Internal authentication; anything Apache supports such as LDAP, NIS, AD, Kerberos
.NET Membership platform
XWiki, LDAP, custom (Open API), Kerberos, NTLM, Headers, PUMA, SAML, Trusted LDAP, Sun SSO
Host Blocking
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
No
Mail Encryption
Unknown
No
Yes
No
Yes
nofollow
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
No
Blacklist
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
Plugin
CAPTCHA
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Delayed Indexing
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Yes
Development/Support CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
# of Consultants
Preconfigured Hosting
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Code Repository
Issue Tracker
Mailing List
Support Forum
Chat Channel
#phpwiki
Stars on GitHub
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Common Features CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Preview
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minor Changes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Change Summary
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Page History
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Page Revisions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Revision Diffs
Between all
Between all
Between all
Between all
Sitemap
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Plugin System
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Special Features CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Unicode Support
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Right-to-Left Support
Unknown
No
No
Unknown
No
Interface Languages
0
9
German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese Traditional
19
Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Chinese, Chinese Traditional
1
English
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
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Comments
Plugin
Threaded
No
Threaded
Categories
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Namespaces
Unknown
No
Yes
No
Yes
Conflict Handling
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Conflict Resolution
Concurrent Editing
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Search
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Full Text
Wiki Farming
Unknown
Yes
Optional
Unknown
Yes
Structured Data
Unknown
Patch
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Links CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
CamelCase
Yes
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Freelinks
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Backlinks
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
InterWiki
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
SisterWiki
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Yes
Image Links
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Windows Shares
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Page Redirects
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Syntax Features CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
HTML Tags
Some
All
Some
All
Math formulas
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
No
Yes
Tables
simple + complex
simple + complex
none
simple + complex
CREOLE support
Unknown
No
No
Unknown
Yes
Markdown Support
Unknown
No
No
Unknown
Yes
Textile Support
Unknown
No
Plugin
Unknown
No
BBCode Support
Unknown
No
No
Unknown
No
Emoticon Images
Unknown
No
Yes
No
Yes
Syntax Highlighting
Unknown
Plugin
Plugin
No
Yes
Footnotes
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Optional
Yes
Quoting
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Internal Comments
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Custom styles
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
FAQ Tags
Unknown
No
Yes
No
Plugin
Scripting
plugins, templates, PHP
TWiki Markup Language, TWiki variables, JavaScript, extensive API
velocity, groovy, ruby, jython, generic JSR223 & very powerful API
Content Includes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Feed Aggregation
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Usability CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Section Editing
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Yes
Page Templates
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Double-Click Edit
Unknown
Optional
Plugin
No
No
Toolbar
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Yes
Yes
WYSIWYG Editing
Unknown
Patch
Yes
No
Yes
Access Keys
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Auto Signature
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
No
Statistics CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Recent Changes
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Unknown
Yes
Wanted Pages
Unknown
Yes
No
No
Yes
Orphaned Pages
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Most/Least Popular
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Optional
Yes
Recent Visitors
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Analysis
Unknown
Plugin
Yes
No
Yes
Output CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Printer Friendly
Print CSS
Print View
Print CSS
Mobile Friendly
Unknown
No
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Themes & Skins
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
RSS Feeds
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
ATOM Feeds
Unknown
No
Yes
No
Optional
Abbreviations
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
Auto-TOC
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Optional
Raw Export
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
HTML Export
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
XML export
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Yes
PDF Export
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
No
Yes
Office Export
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Yes
Media and Files CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
File Attachments
Unknown
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Media Revisions
Unknown
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Embedded Flash
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Embedded Video
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Image Editing
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
SVG Editing
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
MindMap Editing
Unknown
No
Plugin
No
Plugin
Media Search
No
Contents
Contents
Extras CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Calendar
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Image Galleries
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Yes
Presentations
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Forums
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Blogs
Unknown
Yes
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Ticket System
Unknown
No
Plugin
Unknown
Plugin
Chat
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Plugin
Syntax Examples CanvasWiki PhpWiki TWiki ProntoWiki XWiki
Internal Link
WikiWord or [somelink]
[ desc | pagename ]
WikiWord autolink
Otherweb.WikiWord
[[Spaced text]]
[[WikiWord][label]]
[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
http://someserver/someurl
[ desc | exturl ]
http://twiki.org/ autolink
[[http://twiki.org/][label]]
{title|url}
[[wiki syntax here>>http://www.xwiki.com]]
http://www.xwiki.com
Headlines
!!!Headline1
!!Headline2
!Headline3
---+ Level 1
---++ Level 2
---+++ Level 3
---++++ Level 4
---+++++ Level 5
---++++++ Level 6
!, !!, !!!
= Headline
== Subheadline
=== Sub-subheadline
==== etc..
Bold Format
*bold* or
<strong>bold</strong>
*bold*
**bold**
**bold**
Italics Format
_italics_ or 
or
<em>italics</em>
_italic_
''italics''
//Italics//
Underline Format
<u>underlined</u>
<u>underline</u>
__under__
__underline__
Monospace Format
<tt>monospace</tt>
<code>code</code>
<pre>preformatted</pre>
<verbatim>
unparsed text</verbatim>


=monospaced text= and
<verbatim>
multi line text
</verbatim>
##monospace##
Strikethrough Format
<strike>striked through</strike>
<strike>strikethrough</strike>
<<strike>> (using custom tags)
--Strike--
Superscript Format
<sup>above</sup>
<sup>superscript</sup>
<<super>> (using custom tags)
^^superscript^^
Subscript Format
<sub>below</sub>
<sub>subscript</sub>
<<sub>> (using custom tags)
,,subscript,,
Images
[ 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
%ATTACHURL%/image.png
http://any.domain/image.png
{guid} - this is displayed and can be inserted automatically for each image/page
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
<?plugin RawHtml <span align="right"> ?>right<?plugin RawHtml </span> ?>
or <div align="right"> right </div>

| left |   center   |   right |
or HTML
or CSS
available through custom tags
(% style="... css here..." %)Text
Text Indentation
;: left indent
;;: more left indent

or 
paragraph
and another level 
<blockquote>
multi line text
</blockquote>
multiple spaces -> &nbsp;
Non-semantic text indentation through styling:

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

Quotes:

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