head to head · open source
wiki vs zeal
wiki has 29,128 GitHub stars, 3,335 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zeal has 12,865 stars, 852 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. wiki leads on adoption by 126% (29,128 vs 12,865 stars). wiki is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; zeal is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. wiki has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, zeal 7%. wiki was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (documentation), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| wiki | zeal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 13K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 852 |
| 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 zeal if
- You want the zeal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and zeal 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 zeal
Zeal Zeal is an offline documentation browser: your personal reference library, searchable in an instant and available without a connection. Originally inspired by Dash, it supports the same docset format. Download Binary builds for Windows and other installation options are available on the download page. Windows builds require Windows 10 version 1809 or later. How to use After installing Zeal, go to File → Docset Library , select the docsets you want, and click the Download button. Query and filter docsets Limit the search scope by prefixing your query with a docset name and a colon: cpp:vector To search…
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 zeal more popular?
wiki has 29,128 GitHub stars and zeal has 12,865. wiki has the larger community by that measure.
Are wiki and zeal free?
Both are open source. wiki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and zeal under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wiki and zeal?
wiki is written in TypeScript and zeal in C++. 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 zeal?
Choose wiki if you want the larger community (29,128 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose zeal if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.