MediaWiki 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 | MediaWiki | Realms Wiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 16 · At risk |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,174 | ★ 824 |
| First released | 2002 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Confluence, Notion | Confluence |
What are MediaWiki and Realms Wiki?
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is the free, open-source wiki software developed for and used by Wikipedia. It is built to handle large collaborative knowledge bases with powerful templating, extensions, and revision history.
- Powers Wikipedia at scale
- Powerful template system
- Vast extension library
- Full revision history
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
MediaWiki vs Realms Wiki: key differences
MediaWiki is written in PHP, while Realms Wiki is built with Python. Realms Wiki is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for MediaWiki. MediaWiki is the more established project (first released 2002), while Realms Wiki arrived in 2014. MediaWiki has the considerably larger community, at 5,174 GitHub stars versus 824.
Why pick each one
Choose MediaWiki if…
- Battle-tested at massive scale
- Huge extension ecosystem
Watch out for
- Wikitext has a learning curve
- Setup can be involved
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 MediaWiki or Realms Wiki better?
Neither is universally better. MediaWiki has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are MediaWiki and Realms Wiki free and open-source?
Yes. MediaWiki is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Realms Wiki under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run MediaWiki and Realms Wiki with Docker?
MediaWiki: yes. Realms Wiki: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, MediaWiki or Realms Wiki?
Realms Wiki has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for MediaWiki. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.