Daux.io vs MediaWiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Daux.io | MediaWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 829 | ★ 5,174 |
| First released | 2014 | 2002 |
| Replaces | GitBook, Confluence | Confluence, Notion |
What are Daux.io and MediaWiki?
Daux.io
Daux.io is an open-source documentation generator that turns a folder of Markdown files into a navigable documentation website. It needs no database and supports both dynamic serving and static export.
- Markdown folder to docs site
- No database required
- Built-in themes
- Static export option
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
Daux.io vs MediaWiki: key differences
Both projects are written in PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for Daux.io versus GPL-2.0 for MediaWiki. Daux.io is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for MediaWiki. MediaWiki is the more established project (first released 2002), while Daux.io arrived in 2014. MediaWiki has the considerably larger community, at 5,174 GitHub stars versus 829.
Why pick each one
Choose Daux.io if…
- Very easy to set up
- Content stays in plain files
Watch out for
- Documentation-only focus
- 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 Daux.io or MediaWiki better?
Neither is universally better. MediaWiki has the larger community, while Daux.io is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Daux.io and MediaWiki free and open-source?
Yes. Daux.io is licensed under MIT and MediaWiki under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Daux.io and MediaWiki with Docker?
Daux.io: yes. MediaWiki: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Daux.io or MediaWiki?
Daux.io has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for MediaWiki. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.