MediaWiki vs WackoWiki
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | MediaWiki | WackoWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 69 · Good |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,174 | ★ 55 |
| First released | 2002 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Confluence, Notion | Confluence, Notion |
What are MediaWiki and WackoWiki?
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
WackoWiki
WackoWiki is a lightweight, open-source wiki engine focused on ease of installation and multilingual support. It includes WYSIWYG editing, access control, and file uploads.
- Easy installation
- WYSIWYG editing
- Multilingual interface
- Access control lists
MediaWiki vs WackoWiki: key differences
Both projects are written in PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for MediaWiki versus BSD-3-Clause for WackoWiki. WackoWiki is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for MediaWiki. MediaWiki has the considerably larger community, at 5,174 GitHub stars versus 55.
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 WackoWiki if…
- Lightweight and simple
- Good multilingual support
Watch out for
- Small community
- Limited extensions
Frequently asked questions
Is MediaWiki or WackoWiki better?
Neither is universally better. MediaWiki has the larger community, while WackoWiki is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are MediaWiki and WackoWiki free and open-source?
Yes. MediaWiki is licensed under GPL-2.0 and WackoWiki under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run MediaWiki and WackoWiki with Docker?
MediaWiki: yes. WackoWiki: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, MediaWiki or WackoWiki?
WackoWiki has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for MediaWiki. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.