Comparison of wiki hosting services

A "wiki farm" is a server or an array of servers that provides hosting for a wiki, or a group of wikis hosted on such servers. Wiki farms are also known as 'hosted wiki service providers'.

Before, users who wanted to share information on-line through a Wiki of their own subject, had to install a Wiki server of their own, configure it and operate it. With wiki farms this was greatly simplified. In order to operate a wiki on a wiki farm nowadays, there is no need to get a private web server and to install Wiki software.

Thereby, non-commercial and commercial Wiki farms are available for users and online communities. While most of the wiki farms allow everyone to open their own Wiki, some have also certain restrictions.

Wiki farm companies often partly finance themselves with the insertion of advertisement, which mostly can be avoided by paying a monthly fee.

The Wikis on the wiki farms are normally provided with a standard layout, or a choice of layouts, usually known as skins. Some wiki farms allow the layout to be customised using cascading style sheets (css).

Comparison

The following tables compare general information for several wiki farms; however, more than 100 wiki farms have been created. Further information can be found at the websites themselves, or in the linked article for some of the more notable ones. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date. It does not review or endorse any wiki farm, nor does it include any advertising hyperbole. See the external links at the end for more info, reviews, forums, etc.

Wiki farm	Free/paid	Eigenschaften	Wiki engine	Content license	Multilingual support	Syntax support
@wiki [1]	Free, has ads	WYSIWYG editing, selectable edit-mode (WikiText or WYSIWYG or text), access control, file uploads, importing, full-text search, and RSS abilities.	Custom		English, Chinese, Korean and others	Some HTML, JavaScript, Math formulas
BluWiki [2]	Free	No subscription needed, users can make new wiki articles. Subdomains are supported. [3]	MediaWiki 1.6.7	GFDL	Supports English, German, Spanish, French, and most other languages. Incorrect support of Russian.	Some HTML, JavaScript, Math formulas
BrainKeeper [4]	Paid	WYSIWYG editing, access control, full-text search, calendaring, single sign-on to multiple projects, project templates, RSS enabled.	Custom			Some HTML, no script No formulas
Central Desktop [5]	Free/paid	WYSIWYG editing, access control, full-text search, calendaring, single sign-on to multiple projects, project templates, RSS enabled.	Custom			Some HTML, CSS/templating No formulas
ClearWiki [6]	Free/Paid	Private secure wikis (with sub-domains) - each wiki has own physical database. WYSIWYG editing, file storage, version control, full text search (incl docs/files), to-do lists, RSS enabled, blogs, discussions, image galleries (with thumbnailing), meta-tagging (labelling), content starring, teams/groups.	Custom		English only	Some HTML, WYSIWYG edit
Confluence Hosted [7]	Paid/Free for charitable nonprofits and open source projects	WYSIWYG, wiki markup language, plugins, SSL, file storage, permissioning, WebDAV.				HTML plugin script plugin No formulas
CustomerVision BizWiki [8]	Paid	WYSIWYG editing, access control, page templates, domain mapping, solution templates include Sales Support, and Learning Support.	Custom
EditMe [9]	Paid	Subscription-based, SSL Encryption, and Custom Domain Support.	Custom, Java-based			All HTML, JavaScript, No formulas
EditThis.info [10]	Free, text ads	Unlimited pages and users, wiki spam protection, 25MB of disk space, and RSS feeds.	MediaWiki 1.5.5			Some HTML, JavaScript, No formulas
eTouch SamePage [11]	Paid	WYSIWYG editing, project management, permissioning, administration and support for multiple domains.	Custom, powered by eTouch CMS
Gratis-Wiki [12]	Free, text ads, splash ads	The only skin available is Monobook; 100MB of disk space.	MediaWiki 1.5.6
HelpingStudents.org[13]	Free/paid	WYSIWYG, java server pages, scripts and plugin wiki options for school administrators and teachers that provide parental information resources WikiText and HTML editing, metasearch, factoring, permissioning, SSL Encryption, Private Intranet implementation with public integration administration and support.	JSPWiki	License
Hive Wiki [14]	Free	WikiText and HTML editing, metasearch, factoring, permissioning, administration and support for multiple domains and publicly creatable subdomains	Custom, .NET-based
JotSpot Wiki [15]	Free	Build wiki applications, WYSIWYG editor, search MS attachments, email integration. Free version limited to 20 pages and 5 users. Recently purchased by Google (as of 1 Nov 06) - which stated will no longer charge for services once the integration is done.	Custom
LittleWiki [16]	Free (Google Ads)	WYSIWYG editor and plaintext editors	Custom, Java-based
MediaWiki 1.8.2	Free	plaintext editors, revision diffs	Custom, PHP-based	GFDL or public-domain or fair-use		Some HTML, optional scripts, Math formulas
Metadot Wiki [17]	Free GPL/Fee for Wiki-On-Demand & Management Console	7th-generation portal server product adding full wiki functionality; user experience minimizes shelfware-effect; hosted and on-premise options, on-premise version includes unlimited wiki creation (wiki-on-demand); user/group-assignable password system provides complete access control (visibility, editing, changing passwords) over pages and gizmos (rss mgr, news mgr, blurb editor, FAQ mgr, etc.) on each page; all gizmo placement and configuration done "on-page"; template-driven allows for complete customization - check out www.ifno.tv	Custom (Metadot Open)			All HTML, JavaScript, No formulas
MojWiki [18]	Free	In Slovenian language.	MoinMoin		Slovenian
MonkeeBiz [19]	Free	Integrated photo gallery, blog, to do list, forum, and access control.	Custom, Ruby on Rails
MyFreeWiki [20]	Free	Easy and Fast, WYSIWYG and plaintext editors. Integrated photo gallery.	Custom, Enzym		English and French
Netcipia [21]	Free/paid for dedicated servers	WYSIWYG Blog, public and private wiki, 2GB per wiki created, no time limit, right management	XWiki		English only	Some HTML, JavaScript, No math
nexdo (formerly Partnertext) [22]	Free/paid	WYSIWYG HTML editing	Custom			All HTML, unknown script No formulas
Oddwiki [23]	Free		Oddmuse
On-wiki [24]	Free	WYSIWYG editing, attachments, multimedia, writing formulaes, plotting graphs, raw HTML	MoinMoin
OpenTeams [25]	Paid/Free for charitable nonprofits and read-only access	3-pane drag-and-drop Ajax-based interface similar to email and newsfeed readers, private secure wiki spaces (including invitation-only and a domain security option based on validated email domains, i.e. "Everybody with [email protected]"), tags, blog, bliki, "What's New" views, WYSIWYG editing, draft autosaving, discussion, attachments with version history, SSL, unlimited spaces, pages, edits, versions, storage, and bandwidth.	Custom
Ourproject.org [26]	Free		MoinMoin	Copyleft (choice of Creative Commons, GNU FDL, other licenses)
PAUX [27]	Free/paid	Password-protected wikis on .dreusicke-verlag.de. No page limits, SSL, picture gallery included.	Custom	Copyleft license		Some HTML, unknown script Math formulas
PBwiki [28]	Free/paid	Password-protected wikis on .pbwiki.com subdomain. No page limits, SSL, RSS & Atom, ZIP backups, diffs, six wiki "skins", file uploads, page hiding, page locking. Over 350,000 wikis hosted. No page hierarchies. No page permission settings. Free accounts limited to 10 MB.	Custom			All HTML, JavaScript, LaTeX formulas
ProjectForum [29]	Paid		Custom			Optional HTML, unknown script No formulas
ProjectLocker [30]	Paid	Focused on providing software development tools as a service. Wiki features include Unlimited document storage, Custom access profiles for partners, customers, and managers, Support for attachments on documents, Privacy Commitment - Your Data is Yours Alone, Secure access via SSL, RAID 1 redundant storage of all data, Nightly backups, 24/7 Server Monitoring	Custom
Richdex [31]	Free, text ads	Creation of a wiki is subject to approval; it must have a large potential audience and be likely to attract enough editors/administrators. Projects which overlap existing Richdex Wikis are not accepted. There is no means to close an inactive wiki. Domains, names and identifiers are owned by Richdex, not by the respective communities.	MediaWiki 1.10.0	GFDL
Riters.com [32]	Free	Line document collaboration service and Wiki farm	MoinMoin
ScribbleWiki [33]	Free, text ads		MediaWiki 1.10.0	User Choice
Schtuff.com [34]	Free, with Google Ads.	Supports tags & permissions. Backups, but no automatic recovery, if data is lost from server. Registered users can also leave comments on pages. Supports totally open pages, as well. Picture Gallery included w/ new wikis. As of April 2007, Schtuff.com migrated to PBwiki.	Custom	Doesn't require a particular license for contributed material
SeedWiki [35]	Free/paid	No Ads (both free and paid options); cross-platform WYSIWYG editing, stylesheets, subdomains.seedwiki.com, wiki-mode, subscriptions; paid option for having one's own domain that the wiki-owner can tag on to his wiki	Custom			All HTML, JavaScript and Seedwiki widgets Plugin formulas
SnoutHold Cospire [36]	Free	WYSIWYG editing, permissions, public/private security models, ratings, feedback mechanisms, search engine, category organizer, profiles	Custom
SpiveyWorks Wiki [37]	Free	Simple and straight-forward interface for creating and editing private or public wikis. Create wikis using HTML markup instead of a special wiki language.	Custom	Custom
StikiPad [38]	Free/paid	In free version support access restriction, RSS feeds, tags & tag search, personalized subdomain, skins, file attachments, draft autosaving. Do not fully support history. Only last changes will be highlighted. No page hierarchies. No page permission settings.	Custom			Optional HTML, unknown script No formulas
Uwiki.com [39]	Free	In Chinese	DokuWiki		Chinese
ViaWiki [40]	Free/paid	WYSIWYG editing, free version is ad-supported, paid version has option of using own domain, attach files, no limit on number of pages and backups	Deki Wiki
Wetpaint [41]	Free (with google ads)	WYSIWYG editing (only), custom page hierarchies, Comment and Reply forums with comment ratings, access control, keyword search, tags, tag filtering, skins, RSS, page locking, profiles, site activity report, page and comment watching. No page permission settings. No changes preview. Supported browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox.	Custom, Java-based	Creative Commons		No HTML, Unknown script No formulas
Wik.is [42]	Free/paid	WYSIWYG editing, access control, full-text search (including file attachments), document management, light project management, database, project templates, RSS enabled, stores in XML, Deki Wiki a full featured engine (a MediaWiki fork). Free account 1 GB. Paid account ($60/yr) 10 GB.	Deki Wiki
Wikia [43]	Free, has ads	Wiki hosting service created in 2004, formerly known as Wikicities. All wikis have common login and preferences. Single sign-on to multiple projects. Database download available. Creation of a wiki is subject to approval; must have a large potential audience and be likely to attract enough editors. Projects which overlap existing Wikia or Wikimedia are not accepted. No means to close an inactive wiki, even if the community has moved elsewhere. Wikia domains, names and identifiers owned by Wikia Inc, not the respective communities. There is also a "Scratchpad" wiki subdivided into categories, which welcomes all content.	MediaWiki 1.10alpha	GFDL	All languages Wikipedia exists for (and some more); Community Support in English, Chinese, German, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese.	Some HTML, JavaScript, Math formulas
Wikidot [44]	Free without ads	Each site gets a subdomain on .wikidot.com (like mywiki.wikidot.com). Also there is possibility to map a custom domain (like mywiki.com -- if previously registered by the wiki owner) for free. One can optionally allow Wikidot to display ads on their wiki and get 80% of revenue. RSS import/export, private RSS feeds for Users (notifications and watched items), RSS for page changes and forum, customizable themes (every item can be styled with CSS), advanced forum for each Site. Custom page hierarchies, searching, advanced page (full/section/append) edit locking, blocking users and IP addresses. Private messages between users. Uses Ajax for clean and fast (no browser page-reload) interface. SEO-friendly. No limits on site size. Public and private wikis. Lots of widgets, that allow to embed a video from YouTube, GoogleVideo, photos from Flickr, chats from Meembo and many more). Each user can create up to 20 wiki sites and be a member of an unlimited number of wikis.	Modified Text_Wiki engine	By default Creative Commons, GNU FDL, other licenses as requested	English, Polish and Community support in French, German, ... more to come.	No HTML, CSS styling LaTeX math formulas
Wikihost.org [45]	Free, has ads	100 MB space, File and Image upload, User authentication, Private wikis, Subdomains for wikis larger than 30 pages, RSS, Edit locking, Fulltext search, Email notifications, Complete wiki export, Unlimited pages, Unlimited Revisions, Diff function, Revert of old revisions	GeboGebo	By default Creative Commons, others as needed
WikiLot [46]	Free, had ads	No limit on number of pages or number of accounts.	MediaWiki	GNU FDL	Over 70 Languages	Some HTML, JavaScript, Math formulas
WikiNote [47]	Free	No limit on number of pages (64KB/page limit) or number of accounts, complete page history, integration with Shortify	Custom, PHP-based	No enforced license
Wiki-site.com [48]	Free, text ads/paid	Wiki farm with unlimited pages and users, wiki spam protection, user rights control for paid accounts. Interface in many languages. A free *.wiki-site.com domain is offered. Google text-ads added to the right sidebar for free accounts.	MediaWiki 1.6.10	Wiki creators can set their own	English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and over 70 other languages.	Some HTML, JavaScript, Math formulas
Wikispaces [49]	Free (with Google Ads)/paid	WYSIWYG editing, clean easy to use interface, users get a subdomain on wikispaces.com. Free version supported by Google ads - Wikispaces ads can be turned off for a fee. No limits on numbers of pages, spaces, or members. Full RSS support; easy space backups in zip and tgz. Blog import function/ integration with Blogger.com and Typepad. Themes and stylesheets can be customized. Private label service available.	Custom	Choice of Creative Commons, GNU FDL, other licenses		Optional HTML, Unknown script Math formulas
Wiki Spot [50]	Free (nonprofit only)	No advertising, user accounts work on all wikis, use bookmarks and track changes across multiple wikis. Customizable CSS by wiki and user CSS. Simple, intuitive syntax. No limits on pages/disk space. RSS feeds available on all pages. Easy to create a wiki and configure settings.	Sycamore	User choice, default Creative Commons Attribution
WikyBlog.com [51]	Free	No advertising on user accounts, unlimited custom skins, AJAX enhanced tabbed interface	Custom (WikyBlog)	Any, integrated Creative Commons licenses	UTF-8 with English, Arabic, Russian, Turkish, Spanish and Korean	Some HTML, No script No math
XWiki [52]	Free/paid	No advertising, custom skin, unlimited users	XWiki	Any		All HTML, velocity/groovy No formulas
Babylon.wiki [53]	Free, Ads	For russian-language sites	MediaWiki 1.5.8	BSD-like	UTF-8/Russian	Some HTML, JavaScript, Math formulas
Russian wiki community [54]	negotiatable	negotiatable	MediaWiki 1.5.8	negotiatable	UTF-8/Russian	Some HTML, JavaScript, Math formulas
Wiki farm	Free/paid	Eigenschaften	Wiki engine	Content license	Multilingual support	Syntax support

See also

• Wikibooks:Wiki Science. Portal.
• Wikibooks:Wiki Science/How to start a Wiki - information and tips about building a wiki community.
• List of wikis
• Wiki software

External links

• Wiki Farms. List of wiki farms from WikiWikiWeb (c2.com), the original wiki.
• WikiMatrix. Comparison of Wiki Farms. There is also a forum there with reviews, etc.
• WikiIndex on WikiFarms.
• WikiIndex on WikiHosting.
• WikiIndex on WikiBlogFarms.
• Wiki farms at Curlie