Django Wiki vs Gollum
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Django Wiki | Gollum |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 51 · Fair |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source, docker | binary, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,936 | ★ 14,330 |
| First released | 2013 | 2010 |
| Replaces | Confluence, MediaWiki | Confluence, Notion |
What are Django Wiki and Gollum?
Django Wiki
Django Wiki is a wiki engine implemented as a reusable Django application, offering Markdown editing, revision history, and a permission system. It can be embedded into existing Django projects or run as a standalone site.
- Markdown editing
- Revision history
- Granular permissions
- Pluggable architecture
Gollum
Gollum is an open-source wiki system built on top of Git, where every page is a file in a Git repository. It powers the wikis found on GitHub and supports many markup languages.
- Git-backed page storage
- Multiple markup languages
- Powers GitHub wikis
- Full history via Git
Django Wiki vs Gollum: key differences
Django Wiki is written in Python, while Gollum is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Django Wiki versus MIT for Gollum. Gollum is the more established project (first released 2010), while Django Wiki arrived in 2013. Gollum has the considerably larger community, at 14,330 GitHub stars versus 1,936.
Why pick each one
Choose Django Wiki if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Choose Gollum if…
- Pages are plain files in Git
- Easy version control
Watch out for
- No fine-grained ACLs
- Ruby toolchain required
Frequently asked questions
Is Django Wiki or Gollum better?
Neither is universally better. Gollum has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Django Wiki and Gollum free and open-source?
Yes. Django Wiki is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Gollum under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Django Wiki and Gollum with Docker?
Django Wiki: yes. Gollum: yes.