OmniFeed Search

MediaWiki

Free self-hosted wiki engine behind Wikipedia, used for private company wikis with login-required access

Visit mediawiki.org
Screenshot of MediaWiki
MediaWiki, from VulcanSphere via Wikimedia Commons

Our verdict

#6 of 7 in Self-hosted team wikis · Large public or reader-heavy wikis

Pros

  • Runs Wikipedia's software and has run internal wikis at companies for years
  • Over a thousand extensions, including Semantic MediaWiki for structured data
  • Namespaces, categories and templates for organizing large amounts of content
  • Long-term-support releases with mostly automated upgrades

Cons

  • Wikitext is challenging to learn; the visual editor is an add-on
  • No per-page permissions in core, and uploaded files stay reachable unless you configure them
  • Default search is basic
  • Extensions can break on upgrade

Choose if: You're building a big knowledge base with far more readers than editors, and someone can maintain a LAMP stack.

Skip if: A team of a few dozen people who only want a documentation wiki.

Read the full review →

Rankings and alternatives

Self-hosted team wikis scores

Evaluated Nov 14, 2026 Evidence ↓
  • Writing experience · counts double 2

    2/5 means: Markup-first editing; a visual editor exists only as an optional add-on or needs extra setup, and the interface feels dated.

    Wikitext by default, described as challenging to learn; VisualEditor is available but needs extra services.

  • Simultaneous editing 2

    2/5 means: Edit locks or an edit-conflict merge step prevent silent overwrites, but people take turns.

    When two people edit the same part, the second saver gets an edit-conflict screen; there is no live co-editing.

  • Track record · counts double 5

    5/5 means: A decade or more in production, a large user base and a steady stable release line.

    Released in 2002 for Wikipedia and used internally by companies such as Intel, with LTS releases supported for years.

  • Structure and search 3

    3/5 means: Good structure tools (categories, namespaces), but the default search is basic and better search needs an extension.

    Namespaces, categories and templates, but default search is basic and better search needs Elasticsearch.

  • Access control and sign-in (free edition) 2

    2/5 means: Group or space permissions, but single sign-on, directory login or two-factor login are missing from the free edition or need unreliable add-ons.

    A private wiki is one config line, but rights are group-based with no per-page restrictions in core, uploaded files stay reachable unless configured, and LDAP and SSO come from extensions.

  • Setup and upkeep · counts double 3

    3/5 means: The app, a database and a cache or extra service, or a stack whose extensions break on upgrade.

    Standard LAMP stack with LTS releases and mostly automated upgrades, but configuration is by file and extensions can break on upgrade.

  • License and lock-in 5

    5/5 means: A fully open-source license (MIT, GPL, AGPL or LGPL) for everything in the free edition.

    GPLv2 or later.

  • Import, export and API 3

    3/5 means: Export plus an API or importers, with a notable part locked behind a paid edition or limited.

    Export through the API and XML dumps; few importers for other tools.

  • Extensions and customization 5

    5/5 means: A large extension ecosystem plus scripting or structured-data applications.

    Over 1,000 extensions, including Semantic MediaWiki for structured data.

Evidence and sources

Self-hosted team wikis scores

Writing experience 2 quotes
  • “MediaWiki's default page-editing tools have been described as somewhat challenging to learn.[27]”
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki · checked
  • “MediaWiki's native editor uses wikitext, a markup syntax that made sense in 2002 and feels alien to anyone who didn't grow up editing Wikipedia.”
    docmost.com/blog/mediawiki-vs-xwiki · published · checked
Access control and sign-in (free edition) 1 quote
Setup and upkeep 1 quote
  • “Extensions are developed independently. They can conflict with each other. They can break when you upgrade MediaWiki.”
    docmost.com/blog/mediawiki-vs-xwiki · published · checked
License and lock-in 1 quote

Facts

License 1 quote

More from the sources

Limits and known issues 3 quotes
  • “There is no way in the core software to change permissions of particular users in order to restrict or allow editing particular pages, except by changing their usergroup.”
    mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access · checked
  • “A security vulnerability (CVE-2025-6590) affects older versions, allowing any user to view all pages on private wikis. There is no workaround available.”
    mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access · checked
  • “By default, MediaWiki grants read access to everyone. Making the wiki private requires editing configuration files to restrict access.”
    docmost.com/blog/mediawiki-vs-xwiki · published · checked