Gollum 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?
Gollum
A simple, Git-powered wiki with a sweet API
VS
MDwiki
CMS-free wiki that renders Markdown in the browser
| Feature | Gollum | MDwiki |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,308 | ★ 3,191 |
| First released | 2010 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Confluence, Notion | Confluence |
Why pick each one
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Gollum or MDwiki better?
Neither is universally better. Gollum 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 Gollum and MDwiki free and open-source?
Yes. Gollum is licensed under MIT and MDwiki under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gollum and MDwiki with Docker?
Gollum: yes. MDwiki: check the project docs for container support.