Dendron 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 | Dendron | MediaWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 55 · Fair | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,470 | ★ 5,175 |
| First released | 2020 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | Confluence, Notion |
What are Dendron and MediaWiki?
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
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
Dendron vs MediaWiki: key differences
Dendron is written in TypeScript, while MediaWiki is built with PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Dendron versus GPL-2.0 for MediaWiki. MediaWiki is the more established project (first released 2002), while Dendron arrived in 2020. MediaWiki lists first-class Docker deployment; Dendron does not.
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 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 Dendron or MediaWiki better?
Neither is universally better. Dendron has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Dendron and MediaWiki free and open-source?
Yes. Dendron is licensed under GPL-3.0 and MediaWiki under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dendron and MediaWiki with Docker?
Dendron: check the project docs for container support. MediaWiki: yes.