GitBook vs MediaWiki
GitBook
gitbook.com
MediaWiki
mediawiki.orgSide by side
| Figure | GitBook | MediaWiki |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $65/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Knowledge base software | 9.1 (#5) | 8.5 (#36) |
| Spec score · Knowledge Management Software | 8.9 (#4) | 8.3 (#13) |
| API | The GitBook API is RESTful and supports standard GET, POST, PATCH, and DELETE methods for content, collaboration, and integrations. | The REST API provides HTTP access to wiki content and functions, including searching, transforming pages, and accessing page history. |
| Publishing audience | both | both |
| Content analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| Editing | Teams can edit with a block-based WYSIWYG editor, Markdown, a branch-based workflow, or GitHub/GitLab synchronization. | Pages use wikitext, which lets users edit without knowing HTML or CSS, and previous page versions remain available for reverting edits. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | Covina, California, USA | San Francisco, California, United States |
| SSO support | Yes | Yes |
| Support | GitBook provides product support through [email protected] and offers sales contact and demos. | The MediaWiki site directs users with questions to its community support desk and offers documentation, FAQs, and community communication channels. |
| Version history | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
GitBook
GitBook is a documentation platform for teams creating, reviewing, and publishing branded documentation websites. Content can be written in a block-based visual editor or Markdown, organized through branch-based review, or synchronized with GitHub and GitLab. Published sites support custom domains, responsive layouts, SEO, preview deployments, and site variants. GitBook Agent can surface documentation gaps, draft updates, and review changes, while GitBook Assistant answers questions using documentation and connected sources. Teams can set tiered permissions and restrict documentation to authenticated users. The Free plan is free, includes one user, and limits GitBook Agent to 10 messages per week. Premium is $65 a month billed per site annually, plus $12 per user/month; Ultimate is $249 a month billed per site annually, plus $12 per user/month. Annual billing includes two months free, and a 14-day trial is available. Published documentation traffic is not limited.
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is free, server-based wiki software for collecting, organizing, and sharing knowledge. Contributors edit pages in wikitext without needing HTML or CSS, and previous page versions remain available for reverting. Administrators can customize appearance and behavior with extensions; caching supports large, high-traffic wikis. Its REST API provides HTTP access to wiki content and functions such as search, page transformations, and history, with JSON or HTML output and extension-specific endpoints. MediaWiki is self-hosted under GNU GPL version 2 or later and is provided without warranty to the extent permitted by law. The latest stable version 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+. Each release receives security updates for one year, and developers recommend subscribing to the low-traffic mediawiki-announce list. Third-party extensions may be unmaintained, vulnerable, incompatible with some versions, or unreliable together. Documentation, FAQs, community channels, and a support desk are available through the MediaWiki site.