Raneto 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.
Raneto
Free, open, simple Markdown-powered knowledge base
VS
Realms Wiki
Git-backed wiki that stores pages as Markdown
| Feature | Raneto | Realms Wiki |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 16 · At risk |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,902 | ★ 824 |
| First released | 2014 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Confluence, Zendesk Guide | Confluence |
What are Raneto and Realms Wiki?
Raneto
Raneto is an open-source knowledge base platform built on Node.js that uses static Markdown files instead of a database. It turns a folder of Markdown files into a searchable knowledge base.
- Markdown file-based content
- Built-in search
- No database required
- Simple theming
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
Raneto vs Realms Wiki: key differences
Raneto is written in JavaScript, while Realms Wiki is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Raneto versus GPL-2.0 for Realms Wiki. Raneto has the considerably larger community, at 2,902 GitHub stars versus 824.
Why pick each one
Choose Raneto if…
- Easy to set up
- Content lives in plain files
Watch out for
- Basic editing workflow
- Smaller community
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 Raneto or Realms Wiki better?
Raneto is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Realms Wiki if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Raneto and Realms Wiki free and open-source?
Yes. Raneto is licensed under MIT and Realms Wiki under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Raneto and Realms Wiki with Docker?
Raneto: yes. Realms Wiki: yes.