Foswiki vs PmWiki
Foswiki
foswiki.orgPmWiki
pmwiki.orgSide by side
| Figure | Foswiki | PmWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Wiki Software | 8.9 (#4) | 8.6 (#7) |
| Spec score · Knowledge base software | 8.5 (#38) | 8.6 (#33) |
| Editing | Pages can be edited with a WYSIWYG editor, topic markup, or HTML. | Pages can be edited and added through the web without requiring users to know HTML or CSS. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| History | Foswiki keeps revision history for pages and attachments. | Page histories include restore links, and the number of history days and revisions can be configured. |
| Purpose | Foswiki is an open, programmable collaboration platform for sharing knowledge and editing pages collaboratively. | PmWiki is a wiki-based content-management system for collaboratively creating and maintaining websites. |
| Support | The feature page points users to IRC for help and lists community consultants who can help install and customize Foswiki. | The project lists a FAQ, troubleshooting guide, error-message descriptions, and mailing lists as free user-support resources. |
| Version history | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
Foswiki
Foswiki is a free, open-source collaboration platform for teams to share knowledge and edit pages in a browser. It can serve as a document repository, authoring space, content or project management tool, blog, or tracking system. Teams can build applications such as status boards, to-do lists, inventory systems, employee handbooks, and bug trackers. Pages can hold structured data for advanced search, and users can edit them with a WYSIWYG editor, topic markup, or HTML. Foswiki keeps revision history for pages and attachments, with flexible access controls to protect pages. It supports enterprise LDAP and can connect to web APIs such as Google Maps. Its plugin architecture offers hundreds of extensions for added features and third-party application integration. The feature list identifies Cross-Site Request Forgery protection and localized interfaces in 20 languages. It runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, and can also run from a USB stick or as a VMware or VirtualBox appliance. Installation is manual, assumes basic server administration knowledge, and requires Perl and required Perl modules; external extension dependencies may need manual installation.
PmWiki
PmWiki is a wiki-based content-management system for collaboratively building and maintaining websites. Contributors can add and edit pages through the web without knowing HTML or CSS. Administrators can set password controls for an entire site, page groups, or individual pages, covering reading, editing, and uploads. Its access controls can work with existing password databases such as.htaccess, LDAP, and MySQL. Pages are stored as flat files, so a database is not required; the project says it can handle thousands of pages. Administrators can alter appearance and functions with skins, HTML templates, and extensions called recipes. Page histories include restore links, and the number of history days and revisions can be configured. PmWiki is free, open-source software for self-hosting that requires PHP. The listed plan is free. Project support resources include a FAQ, troubleshooting guide, error-message descriptions, and mailing lists. Maintainer Petko Yotov offers paid technical support and development at €60, paid once, billed at 60€ / hour, with an invoice provided. The release notes list version 2.7.6, dated 2026-09-18, with updates for recent PHP versions; version 2.7.5 closed a Windows-server vulnerability under specified conditions.