Antora vs MediaWiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Antora
Multi-repository documentation site generator
VS
MediaWiki
The wiki engine that powers Wikipedia
| Feature | Antora | MediaWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MPL-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 800 | ★ 5,174 |
| First released | 2017 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Confluence, GitBook | Confluence, Notion |
What are Antora and MediaWiki?
Antora
Antora is an open-source documentation site generator built for technical content authored in AsciiDoc. It assembles documentation from multiple versioned Git repositories into a single coherent site.
- AsciiDoc-based documentation
- Multi-repository aggregation
- Built-in versioning
- Static output
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is the free, open-source wiki software developed for and used by Wikipedia. It is built to handle large collaborative knowledge bases with powerful templating, extensions, and revision history.
- Powers Wikipedia at scale
- Powerful template system
- Vast extension library
- Full revision history
Antora vs MediaWiki: key differences
Antora is written in JavaScript, while MediaWiki is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MPL-2.0 for Antora versus GPL-2.0 for MediaWiki. MediaWiki is the more established project (first released 2002), while Antora arrived in 2017. MediaWiki has the considerably larger community, at 5,174 GitHub stars versus 800. MediaWiki lists first-class Docker deployment; Antora does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Antora if…
- Great for large multi-repo docs
- Strong versioning support
Watch out for
- AsciiDoc learning curve
- No web-based editing
Choose MediaWiki if…
- Battle-tested at massive scale
- Huge extension ecosystem
Watch out for
- Wikitext has a learning curve
- Setup can be involved
Frequently asked questions
Is Antora or MediaWiki better?
Neither is universally better. MediaWiki has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Antora and MediaWiki free and open-source?
Yes. Antora is licensed under MPL-2.0 and MediaWiki under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Antora and MediaWiki with Docker?
Antora: check the project docs for container support. MediaWiki: yes.