Overview

MediaWiki is server-based software for publishing and maintaining a shared wiki. It is best suited to organizations and publishers able to operate their own hosting and willing to manage extensions. Its appeal is the combination of revision control, customization and API access; it is a poor fit when granular access restrictions or a managed, low-maintenance setup are essential.

Key features

Contributors edit pages in wikitext rather than HTML or CSS, and earlier versions can be restored. That keeps the editing model approachable for people who do not build web pages while giving teams a way to recover from unwanted changes.

Administrators can alter appearance and behavior through extensions, with the option for developers to create or contribute them. This makes MediaWiki adaptable, but extension choice carries ongoing risk: third-party add-ons may be unmaintained, vulnerable, incompatible with a particular version, or unreliable in combination.

The REST API exposes wiki content and functions over HTTP, including search, page transformations and page history. It can return JSON or HTML, and extensions can add endpoints. For high-traffic wikis, caching support and a design intended for large sites are meaningful advantages, though they do not remove the need to provide and maintain the server.

MediaWiki supports custom domains, single sign-on, content analytics and version history. The software is licensed under GNU GPL version 2 or later and carries no warranty to the extent permitted by law. Its developers recommend subscribing to the low-traffic mediawiki-announce list; each release receives security updates for one year.

Pricing

MediaWiki costs 0.00 USD per free. It is free software under GNU GPL version 2 or later, but self-hosted rather than a hosted service, so the organization must provide the infrastructure and administration. There is no free trial because the software itself is free.

The latest stable release requires PHP 8.3.0 or later, a web server, and MariaDB 10.3.0+, MySQL 5.7.0+, PostgreSQL 10.0+ or SQLite 3.31.0+. Those requirements make the price attractive to technically capable teams, but not necessarily the lower-effort choice for a small group without server expertise.

Platforms

MediaWiki is available for self-hosted use on Linux, macOS and Windows, with web access and an API. Installation guidance describes software bundles including XAMPP for Linux, Windows and Mac, and MAMP for Windows and Mac. Documentation, FAQs, community communication channels and a support desk give administrators places to seek help, but this remains community-oriented rather than a managed installation.

Who it's for

Choose MediaWiki for a knowledge project that needs a customizable, extensible wiki, revision recovery and programmatic access, especially when the team can run and secure its own server. The manual cautions against it for projects needing partial access restrictions, smaller sites constrained by disk or memory, or users who really need dedicated forum or blogging software. Those are substantial caveats: flexibility does not make it a universal publishing platform.

Pros and cons

Pro: Wikitext editing and restorable page history support collaborative publishing without requiring contributors to know HTML or CSS.
Pro: The REST API, including JSON and HTML responses and extension-specific endpoints, can support integrations and content workflows.
Pro: Extension-based customization and caching support make it adaptable to large, high-traffic wikis.
Con: Self-hosting requires a web server, recent PHP and a supported database, adding operational work beyond the zero software price.
Con: Third-party extensions can introduce maintenance, security and compatibility problems.
Con: Partial access restrictions and resource-constrained smaller sites are identified as poor fits.

Alternatives

Confluence is worth considering if a hosted-style freemium option suits better: its free plan is forever for 10 users and includes 2 GB file storage and three active whiteboards per user, with a free trial also offered.

PmWiki is another free, self-hosted PHP wiki option for readers comparing open-source choices. MoinMoin and Wiki.js are also free software options; Wiki.js is AGPL-licensed and self-hosted.

BookStack offers a no-cost self-hosted edition under the MIT license. Slab may suit a small group preferring a web-based freemium plan, but its free tier is capped at 10 users, 10 MB attachments, 90 days of version history and 30 days of usage analytics.

BlueSpice has a free distribution with business features including a visual editor, performance search, templates and PDF export. Docmost offers an open-source Community edition with real-time collaboration, spaces, full-text search, page history and restore, and public sharing.

Explore more options in Wiki Software, Knowledge Management Software and Knowledge base software.

Verdict

MediaWiki is a strong choice for teams that want a capable, extensible wiki and can take responsibility for hosting, updates and extension quality. Its price and revision-aware publishing are compelling; look elsewhere if you need partial access controls, modest-resource hosting or a turnkey service.

	MediaWiki	PhpWiki
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	Free	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Web, Windows	Web
Free plan	Yes	—
Publishing audience	both	both
Custom domain	Yes	—
SSO support	Yes	—
Version history	Yes	—
Content analytics	Yes	—

MediaWiki vs PhpWiki

MediaWiki

PhpWiki