head to head · open source
wiki vs fern
wiki has 29,128 GitHub stars, 3,335 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fern has 3,830 stars, 372 forks, 343 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wiki leads on adoption by 661% (29,128 vs 3,830 stars). wiki is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; fern is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. wiki has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, fern 10%. fern was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| wiki | fern | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 372 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick wiki if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick fern if
- You want the fern feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and fern fits your workflow better
About wiki
A modern, lightweight and powerful wiki app built on NodeJS Official Website Documentation Requirements Installation Demo Changelog Feature Requests Chat with us on Discord Translations (We need your help!) Special Thanks Contribute Follow our Twitter feed to learn about upcoming updates and new releases! Donate Wiki.js is an open source project that has been made possible due to the generous contributions by community backers. If you are interested in supporting this project, please consider becoming a sponsor, becoming a patron, donating to our OpenCollective, via Paypal or via Ethereum (
About fern
🌿 What is Fern? Fern is a platform that transforms your API definitions into production ready SDKs and beautiful documentation in minutes. With Fern, you can offer your users: 🧩 Type safe SDKs in multiple languages, including TypeScript, Python, Java, Go, Ruby, PHP, and C 📘 Developer documentation featuring an interactive UI and auto generated API + SDK references ✨ AI Search powered by an assistant trained on your docs, APIs, and SDKs that can instantly answer a developer's questions Fern supports leading API specifications including OpenAPI (REST, Webhooks), AsyncAPI (WebSockets), Protobuf (gRPC), and…
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Documentation & Knowledge Base projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Documentation & Knowledge Base field.
Frequently asked questions
Is wiki or fern more popular?
wiki has 29,128 GitHub stars and fern has 3,830. wiki has the larger community by that measure.
Are wiki and fern free?
Both are open source. wiki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and fern under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wiki and fern?
wiki is written in TypeScript and fern in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, wiki or fern?
Choose wiki if you want the larger community (29,128 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose fern if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.