LeafWiki vs MDwiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
LeafWiki
Lightweight self-hosted wiki with Markdown stored on disk
VS
MDwiki
CMS-free wiki that renders Markdown in the browser
| Feature | LeafWiki | MDwiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 19 · At risk |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,149 | ★ 3,187 |
| First released | 2024 | 2013 |
| Replaces | DokuWiki, Confluence | Confluence |
What are LeafWiki and MDwiki?
LeafWiki
LeafWiki is a lightweight self-hosted wiki for long-lived documentation that stores Markdown pages on disk in a tree structure. It ships as a single Go binary with SQLite and supports tables, task lists, footnotes, and Mermaid diagrams.
- Single Go binary deployment
- Markdown pages stored on disk
- Tree-based page organization
- Mermaid diagram support
MDwiki
MDwiki is a completely client-side wiki engine that renders a set of Markdown files into a navigable site without any server-side processing or database. Pages are loaded and rendered on demand directly in the browser.
- Pure client-side rendering
- No server logic
- Markdown content
- Themeable layout
LeafWiki vs MDwiki: key differences
LeafWiki is written in Go, while MDwiki is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — MIT for LeafWiki versus GPL-3.0 for MDwiki. MDwiki is the more established project (first released 2013), while LeafWiki arrived in 2024. MDwiki has the considerably larger community, at 3,187 GitHub stars versus 1,149. LeafWiki lists first-class Docker deployment; MDwiki does not.
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
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
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 LeafWiki 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 LeafWiki and MDwiki free and open-source?
Yes. LeafWiki is licensed under MIT and MDwiki under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run LeafWiki and MDwiki with Docker?
LeafWiki: yes. MDwiki: check the project docs for container support.