DokuWiki

On December 10, 2025, we consulted Google Gemini 3.0 to obtain an up-to-date list of the most popular wiki software. Using its Deep Think mode, it provided a well-reasoned and balanced response. Based on that input, we present the following overview ²⁾.

Based on market share and user adoption in 2024/2025, here are the top wiki tools broken down by category.

1. The Corporate Standards (Enterprise)

All 3 software require an expensive user license. Confluence and SharePoint are widely known and exist for many years now. The initial release of Notion was rather buggy. Stable Notion 2.0 appeared in March 2018.

2. The Open Source Leaders (Self-Hosted or via Hosting Provider)

All these 3 are open-source and free. MediaWiki is well known as it was developped specifically for WikiPedia in 2001 ³⁾. DokuWiki has been around since 2004 and evolved at a steady pace. The qualification “lightweight” refers to technical requirements and resources, not to functionality. The initial release of Wiki.js was on 12 September 2016, is primarily meant for developers, and is technically way more complex than the other two.

One remark that was mentioned by Google Gemini in its answer was that both MediaWiki and DokuWiki look dated when using their standard layout template or theme. For both these wiki tools, additional modern layout versions exist.

The complete Google Gemini 3.0 Deep Think answer is shown here.

DokuWiki is the smart, no-nonsense choice for a knowledge base, documentation system, or collection management system. Lightweight, user-friendly, and open source. Perfect for teams that want to work agilely without getting stuck in closed formats or scattered files.

DokuWiki features

1. Interconnected information
   DokuWiki stores knowledge as interlinked wiki pages. This means: visible relationships, context immediately accessible, and no hassle with dozens of unrelated files.
2. One solid base layout ⇒ consistent content
   Choose a clear template and your team can add content at lightning speed while the look & feel remains uniform. The result: fast publishing with a professional appearance.
3. Just start, refine later
   No perfect start required. Publish, test, and improve step by step. DokuWiki grows along with your organization.
4. Fully searchable
   Both text and attached media are searchable, making answers quick to find and knowledge reusable.
5. Collaboration & accountability
   Teams edit, enrich, and manage together; individual contributions remain traceable. People work at their best, because responsibility and visibility go hand in hand.
6. Open source & future-proof
   Extensions, custom layouts, and integrations are easy; content is never locked into a proprietary system. Your investment remains free and scalable.

Who is DokuWiki ideal for?

For product teams, support departments, libraries, knowledge managers, and small to medium-sized organizations that want to collaborate without complex management layers. No heavy infrastructure, but maximum control and flexibility.

In the Netherlands, we are the number one specialist in DokuWiki based solutions. If you would like to know more about DokuWiki and the services that we supply, please submit our contact form and we will respond within 24 hours.

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The wiki name comes from the Hawaiian language and means quick. Its inventor, Ward Cunningham, was inspired when he stepped on the Wiki Wiki bus. In the Hawaiian language the word “wiki” means quick, and “wiki wiki” implies very quick.

The Wiki Wiki Shuttle is a fare-free shuttle bus system at the Honolulu International Airport. The shuttle's name inspired Cunningham to call his new website “WikiWikiWeb”. It was designed to allow visitors to the site to edit its content and do it quick. This type of website came to be known as a “wiki,” a prominent example of which is Wikipedia ⁴⁾.

A wiki is a collaborative knowledge platform designed to make creating, organizing, and maintaining information easy for a group of people. While different wiki systems vary in features and complexity, most wikis share a common set of characteristics:

1. Collaborative editing
   Multiple people can create and edit pages. This encourages shared ownership of content and makes it easy to improve information over time.
2. Simple content creation
   Wikis are designed so that users can write and format pages without advanced technical skills. Editing is usually done directly in the browser.
3. Interlinked pages
   Pages can easily link to one another, allowing information to be connected and navigated in a natural, non-linear way.
4. Version history
   Changes are tracked automatically. Users can see who edited a page, review previous versions, and restore earlier content if needed.
5. Incremental improvement
   Content evolves gradually. Pages can start simple and be refined over time as knowledge grows or changes.
6. Centralized knowledge base
   A wiki acts as a single, shared source of truth where information is stored, organized, and easy to find.
7. Search and navigation
   Built-in search and structured navigation help users quickly locate relevant information.
8. Access control and permissions
   Many wikis allow administrators to control who can read, edit, or manage content, making them suitable for both public and private use.
9. Low barrier to contribution
   Wikis encourage participation by making it easy for users to fix mistakes, add notes, or contribute small improvements.
10. Living documentation
    Wiki content is not static. It is continuously updated to reflect current knowledge, processes, or decisions.

Together, these characteristics make wikis especially well suited for documentation, internal knowledge sharing, project notes, and community-driven information.

Many people have heard of MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia. MediaWiki is famous, powerful, and capable of running the world's largest encyclopedia.

Think of DokuWiki as the MediaWiki's clever “little brother”. They share the same DNA: they store information in pages both using simple text codes for formatting, they both link information together easily, and they are both open source (written in Php). However, while the big brother MediaWiki is heavy and requires complex server management to handle millions of users, little brother DokuWiki is lightweight, agile, and easy to handle. It packs many of the same great features like revision history and collaborative editing, but in a package that is much easier for a normal team to install and use.

Wikipedia proved that a seemingly impossible problem could be solved: building a massive, reliable library using only volunteers. And it grew into an extremely successful source of knowledge.

It relies on a few key factors:

Just like many of our customers' websites, this one is built with DokuWiki as well. Apart from its core functionality, much is added through some great plugins. The layout is based on the Readthedokus template which was extended and improved by us.