Dendron vs MDwiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Dendron | MDwiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 55 · Fair | 19 · At risk |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,470 | ★ 3,187 |
| First released | 2020 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | Confluence |
What are Dendron and MDwiki?
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
MDwiki
MDwiki is a completely client-side wiki engine that renders a set of Markdown files into a navigable site without any server-side processing or database. Pages are loaded and rendered on demand directly in the browser.
- Pure client-side rendering
- No server logic
- Markdown content
- Themeable layout
Dendron vs MDwiki: key differences
Dendron is written in TypeScript, while MDwiki is built with JavaScript. MDwiki is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Dendron. MDwiki is the more established project (first released 2013), while Dendron arrived in 2020. Dendron has the considerably larger community, at 7,470 GitHub stars versus 3,187.
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 MDwiki if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Dendron or MDwiki better?
Neither is universally better. Dendron has the larger community, while MDwiki is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Dendron and MDwiki free and open-source?
Yes. Dendron is licensed under GPL-3.0 and MDwiki under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dendron and MDwiki with Docker?
Dendron: check the project docs for container support. MDwiki: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Dendron or MDwiki?
MDwiki has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Dendron. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.