SHSelfHostIndex

Feather Wiki 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?
FE Feather Wiki Tiny single-file personal wiki for note taking VS MD MDwiki CMS-free wiki that renders Markdown in the browser
FeatureFeather WikiMDwiki
CategoryWikis & DocumentationWikis & Documentation
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageJavaScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM32 MB64 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcebare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 900★ 3,191
First released20212013
ReplacesNotion, TiddlyWikiConfluence

Why pick each one

Choose Feather Wiki if…

  • Trivial to host
  • Highly portable
Feather Wiki 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 Feather Wiki or MDwiki better?

Neither is universally better. MDwiki has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Feather Wiki and MDwiki free and open-source?

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

Can I run Feather Wiki and MDwiki with Docker?

Feather Wiki: check the project docs for container support. MDwiki: check the project docs for container support.

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