Dendron vs LeafWiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Dendron
Hierarchical note-taking and personal knowledge wiki
VS
LeafWiki
Lightweight self-hosted wiki with Markdown stored on disk
| Feature | Dendron | LeafWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,458 | ★ 997 |
| First released | 2020 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | DokuWiki, Confluence |
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
Choose LeafWiki if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Dendron or LeafWiki better?
Neither is universally better. Dendron has the larger community, while LeafWiki is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Dendron and LeafWiki free and open-source?
Yes. Dendron is licensed under GPL-3.0 and LeafWiki under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dendron and LeafWiki with Docker?
Dendron: check the project docs for container support. LeafWiki: yes.