Docusaurus vs MDwiki

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?
FeatureDocusaurusMDwiki
CategoryWikis & DocumentationWikis & Documentation
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcebare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 65,862★ 3,191
First released20172013
ReplacesGitBook, ConfluenceConfluence

Why pick each one

Choose Docusaurus if…

  • Great for versioned docs
  • Strong community and themes
Docusaurus details

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
MDwiki details

Frequently asked questions

Is Docusaurus or MDwiki better?

Neither is universally better. Docusaurus 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 Docusaurus and MDwiki free and open-source?

Yes. Docusaurus is licensed under MIT and MDwiki under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Docusaurus and MDwiki with Docker?

Docusaurus: check the project docs for container support. MDwiki: check the project docs for container support.

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