Dendron vs Feather Wiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Dendron | Feather Wiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,470 | ★ 900 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | Notion, TiddlyWiki |
What are Dendron and Feather Wiki?
Dendron
Dendron is an open-source, local-first note-taking tool that works as a hierarchical personal knowledge wiki on top of VS Code. It uses a structured naming scheme to organize thousands of Markdown notes and can publish them as a static site.
- Hierarchical note schema
- Local Markdown storage
- Static site publishing
- VS Code integration
Feather Wiki
Feather Wiki is an extremely small single-file personal wiki and note-taking application that runs entirely in the browser. The whole wiki, including content and code, lives in one tiny HTML file that is easy to back up and host anywhere.
- Single HTML file
- Tiny footprint
- Works offline
- Page linking
Dendron vs Feather Wiki: key differences
Dendron is written in TypeScript, while Feather Wiki is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Dendron versus MIT for Feather Wiki. Feather Wiki is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Dendron. Dendron has the considerably larger community, at 7,470 GitHub stars versus 900.
Why pick each one
Choose Dendron if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 7.5k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Tied to VS Code
- Learning curve for hierarchy
Choose Feather Wiki if…
- Trivial to host
- Highly portable
Watch out for
- No multi-user editing
- Limited at large scale
Frequently asked questions
Is Dendron or Feather Wiki better?
Neither is universally better. Dendron has the larger community, while Feather Wiki is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Dendron and Feather Wiki free and open-source?
Yes. Dendron is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Feather Wiki under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dendron and Feather Wiki with Docker?
Dendron: check the project docs for container support. Feather Wiki: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Dendron or Feather Wiki?
Feather Wiki has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Dendron. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.