head to head · open source
wiki vs leafwiki
wiki has 28,938 GitHub stars, 3,314 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped today. leafwiki has 1,135 stars, 83 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. wiki leads on adoption by 2,450% (28,938 vs 1,135 stars). wiki is written in Vue under AGPL-3.0; leafwiki is written in Go under MIT. wiki has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, leafwiki 7%. wiki was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (documentation, markdown), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| wiki | leafwiki | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Vue | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 83 |
| 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 Vue
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick leafwiki if
- You want the leafwiki feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and leafwiki fits your workflow better
About wiki
Wiki.js is a modern, lightweight wiki application built on NodeJS and distributed as open source under the AGPL 3.0 licence, aimed at teams and organisations that want to publish and maintain their own documentation and knowledge base rather than renting a hosted one.
About leafwiki
🌿 LeafWiki Self hosted wiki. Single Go binary. SQLite + Markdown stored on disk. For engineers and self hosters who want structured, long lived documentation. No Node.js, no Redis, no Postgres — just a binary and a data directory. If you've looked at Wiki.js or Outline and thought "this is too much to operate for what I need" — this could fit for you. → Try it without installing: demo.leafwiki.com · Ctrl+E edit · Ctrl+S save · resets hourly → If it fits, a star helps others find it. → All install options (Docker Compose, Linux installer, binary) Table of Contents Features Good fit / not a fit Install Docker Dock…
read the full leafwiki overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is wiki or leafwiki more popular?
wiki has 28,938 GitHub stars and leafwiki has 1,135. wiki has the larger community by that measure.
Are wiki and leafwiki free?
Both are open source. wiki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and leafwiki under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wiki and leafwiki?
wiki is written in Vue and leafwiki in Go. 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 leafwiki?
Choose wiki if you want the larger community (28,938 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose leafwiki if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.