Gollum vs Realms Wiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Gollum | Realms Wiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 51 · Fair | 16 · At risk |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,330 | ★ 824 |
| First released | 2010 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Confluence, Notion | Confluence |
What are Gollum and Realms Wiki?
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
Realms Wiki
Realms Wiki is a lightweight, self-hosted wiki that stores all pages as Markdown files in a Git repository. This gives full version history and lets pages be edited either through the web UI or directly in Git.
- Git-backed pages
- Markdown editing
- Full version history
- Simple web UI
Gollum vs Realms Wiki: key differences
Gollum is written in Ruby, while Realms Wiki is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Gollum versus GPL-2.0 for Realms Wiki. Gollum is the more established project (first released 2010), while Realms Wiki arrived in 2014. Gollum has the considerably larger community, at 14,330 GitHub stars versus 824.
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
Choose Realms Wiki if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Maintenance has slowed
- Basic feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is Gollum or Realms Wiki better?
Neither is universally better. Gollum has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Gollum and Realms Wiki free and open-source?
Yes. Gollum is licensed under MIT and Realms Wiki under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gollum and Realms Wiki with Docker?
Gollum: yes. Realms Wiki: yes.