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Gollum vs Raneto

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?
GO Gollum A simple, Git-powered wiki with a sweet API VS Raneto Free, open, simple Markdown-powered knowledge base
FeatureGollumRaneto
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score51 · Fair68 · Good
CategoryWikis & DocumentationWikis & Documentation
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageRubyJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, docker, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 14,330★ 2,902
First released20102014
ReplacesConfluence, NotionConfluence, Zendesk Guide

What are Gollum and Raneto?

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

Read the full Gollum guide →

Raneto

Raneto is an open-source knowledge base platform built on Node.js that uses static Markdown files instead of a database. It turns a folder of Markdown files into a searchable knowledge base.

  • Markdown file-based content
  • Built-in search
  • No database required
  • Simple theming

Read the full Raneto guide →

Gollum vs Raneto: key differences

Gollum is written in Ruby, while Raneto is built with JavaScript. Gollum is the more established project (first released 2010), while Raneto arrived in 2014. Gollum has the considerably larger community, at 14,330 GitHub stars versus 2,902.

Why pick each one

Choose Gollum if…

  • Pages are plain files in Git
  • Easy version control

Watch out for

  • No fine-grained ACLs
  • Ruby toolchain required
Gollum details

Choose Raneto if…

  • Easy to set up
  • Content lives in plain files

Watch out for

  • Basic editing workflow
  • Smaller community
Raneto details

Frequently asked questions

Is Gollum or Raneto better?

Neither is universally better. Gollum has the larger community, while Raneto is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Gollum and Raneto free and open-source?

Yes. Gollum is licensed under MIT and Raneto under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Gollum and Raneto with Docker?

Gollum: yes. Raneto: yes.

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