Gollum vs LeafWiki
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?
Gollum
A simple, Git-powered wiki with a sweet API
VS
LeafWiki
Lightweight self-hosted wiki with Markdown stored on disk
| Feature | Gollum | LeafWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,308 | ★ 997 |
| First released | 2010 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Confluence, Notion | DokuWiki, Confluence |
Why pick each one
Choose LeafWiki if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Gollum or LeafWiki better?
Neither is universally better. Gollum has the larger community, while LeafWiki is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Gollum and LeafWiki free and open-source?
Yes. Gollum is licensed under MIT and LeafWiki under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gollum and LeafWiki with Docker?
Gollum: yes. LeafWiki: yes.