LeafWiki vs MediaWiki
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?
LeafWiki
Lightweight self-hosted wiki with Markdown stored on disk
VS
MediaWiki
The wiki engine that powers Wikipedia
| Feature | LeafWiki | MediaWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 997 | ★ 5,135 |
| First released | 2024 | 2002 |
| Replaces | DokuWiki, Confluence | Confluence, Notion |
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 LeafWiki or MediaWiki better?
Neither is universally better. MediaWiki 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 LeafWiki and MediaWiki free and open-source?
Yes. LeafWiki is licensed under MIT and MediaWiki under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run LeafWiki and MediaWiki with Docker?
LeafWiki: yes. MediaWiki: yes.