Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Pmwiki VS BookStack

Compare Pmwiki VS BookStack and see what are their differences

Pmwiki logo Pmwiki

PmWiki is a wiki-based system for collaborative creation and maintenance of websites.

BookStack logo BookStack

An open source knowledge management application that's focused on ease of use.
  • Pmwiki Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-15
  • BookStack Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-31

Pmwiki features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    PmWiki is designed to be straightforward and user-friendly, requiring minimal technical expertise in HTML or CSS, which makes it accessible for non-technical users to create and edit pages.
  • No Database Required
    PmWiki stores its content in flat files, so it doesn't require a database engine like MySQL. This can simplify installation and maintenance for users not familiar with database management.
  • Customizability
    PmWiki offers a flexible template and skins system that enables users to easily modify the appearance and functionality of the site without requiring in-depth programming knowledge.
  • Access Control
    The platform provides robust access control features, allowing administrators to define who can view or edit content on the wiki, which is beneficial for managing collaborative work.
  • Large Community and Support
    PmWiki has an active community and extensive documentation, offering a wealth of resources and community support that can assist users with troubleshooting and expanding their wiki.

Possible disadvantages of Pmwiki

  • Limited Built-in Features
    Compared to other more comprehensive content management systems, PmWiki may lack some advanced built-in features, requiring additional customization or use of plugins to extend functionality.
  • Scalability Concerns
    As PmWiki uses a flat file structure, performance may degrade with very large wikis or high traffic volumes unless optimizations are put in place.
  • Plugin Dependency
    To gain additional functionalities beyond the core features of PmWiki, users often need to rely on third-party plugins, which might vary in quality and support.
  • Less Modern Aesthetic
    Some users might find the default themes and visual aesthetics of PmWiki to be less modern compared to newer platforms, which might require more effort to update or customize.
  • Static Output
    Without a database backend, integrating dynamic content can be challenging, limiting the ability to create dynamic, database-backed applications directly within PmWiki.

BookStack features and specs

  • Open Source
    BookStack is an open-source platform, meaning it is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and contribute to. This ensures a large community support and continuous updates.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The software has a clean and intuitive interface that makes it easy for users of all skill levels to create and manage documentation.
  • Integrated WYSIWYG Editor
    The application includes a built-in 'What You See Is What You Get' editor, making it simple to format text and add multimedia without HTML knowledge.
  • Permission Management
    BookStack offers granular permission settings, which allow administrators to control access on a per-page, book, or shelf level.
  • Customizable
    With open-source software, the level of customization available is high, allowing organizations to tailor the software to their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of BookStack

  • Hosting and Maintenance
    As an open-source product, users need to handle their own hosting and maintenance, which could be challenging for those without technical expertise.
  • Limited Integrations
    BookStack does not natively integrate with as many third-party applications compared to some proprietary knowledge management systems.
  • Learning Curve
    While the interface is user-friendly, setting up and customizing the platform may require a learning curve, especially for those unfamiliar with open-source software.
  • Performance
    In some instances, performance issues have been reported, especially when handling a large volume of data or concurrent users.
  • Feature Limitations
    Some advanced features found in proprietary knowledge management systems, such as advanced analytics or AI-driven search, may be lacking.

Analysis of BookStack

Overall verdict

  • BookStack is a good choice for individuals and teams looking for a straightforward, open-source documentation tool. It's ideal for those who prefer a self-hosted solution without incurring additional costs or dealing with the complexities of some enterprise-level systems.

Why this product is good

  • BookStack is an open-source, self-hosted platform designed to make documentation and knowledge sharing easy. It's praised for its user-friendly interface, which resembles a digital version of a traditional book with chapters and pages, making it intuitive for users to navigate and organize content. The platform supports Markdown editing, which allows for easy formatting and media embedding. In addition, it has built-in support for authentication methods and role-based access control, providing flexibility and security for teams. The active community and frequent updates also contribute to its reliability and ongoing improvement.

Recommended for

    Small to medium-sized teams, open-source enthusiasts, educational institutions, and projects that require a user-friendly documentation system with the flexibility of self-hosting.

Pmwiki videos

No Pmwiki videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

BookStack videos

BookStack Review- 7 Brief Lessons in Physics

More videos:

  • Review - Bookstack, a free, open source, self hosted documentation wiki with style.
  • Review - Bookstack - Meine favorisierte Wiki Software

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pmwiki and BookStack)
WiKis
39 39%
61% 61
Note Taking
37 37%
63% 63
Content Collaboration
38 38%
62% 62
Knowledge Base
18 18%
82% 82

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Pmwiki and BookStack

Pmwiki Reviews

Top 12 Self-hosted Wiki Engines for 2024: A Comprehensive Guide
PmWiki stands out for its ease of installation and maintenance, as it does not require a database. It offers extensive customization options through skins and plugins, allowing users to personalize their websites. Access control mechanisms ensure that only authorized users can edit content. PmWiki supports easy page creation and editing, with features for categorization and...
Source: medevel.com
The 10 Best Self-hosted Wiki Software for Linux System
PmWiki keeps track of edited pages with page history. So users can easily find out differences between previous and recent pages. Besides, it has a page indexing feature to create dynamic page lists. Even you can categorize your page via the Pagelist feature. It has spam protection features such as blocking words and IP addresses.
Best 11 Open-source Free Wiki Engines for teams and enterprise in 2022
PmWiki is a lightweight open-source wiki built with PHP. It offers a spam protection, page editing, revisions, RSS feeds, search tools, page group management and dozens of themes and plugins.
Source: medevel.com
The Best 20 Wiki Software For Your Business& Internal Knowledge for 2022
A wiki-based content management system, PmWiki is great for collaborative creation and maintenance of your company’s wiki. Written in PHP and released under General Public License, this wiki tool is extremely easy to install, customize, and maintain. Creating and managing wiki pages is a piece of cake with this wiki software.
17 open source wiki engine/software
PmWiki is a wiki based software for collaborative creation and maintenance of website. it work similar like normal web pages, but only difference is they have an “Edit” link that makes it easy to modify existing pages for anyone and add new web pages into the website, using basic editing rules no need to know or use any HTML or CSS language. Page editing can be left open to...

BookStack Reviews

Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
Bookstack is a simple, self-hosted platform for organizing and storing information, focusing on creating a knowledge base. It is similar to Gitbook in its functionality but differs in how it is organized and presented. It allows you to collect information in a hierarchical structure, similar to a book, with chapters and sections. This can make it easier to navigate large...
Source: www.archbee.com
The 10 Best Self-hosted Wiki Software for Linux System
Another powerful self-hosted Wiki software for Linux is BookStack. One of the most attractive features of BookStack is its cross-book sorting capability. It can sort all books based on tags such as title, author name, publisher, and genre. Users can even use it to search for particular titles based on a keyword. Other features of this open-source software include image...
Best 11 Open-source Free Wiki Engines for teams and enterprise in 2022
The BookStack App is not just a Wiki Engine, but it works the same. It aims for creating books by easing collaboration among writers and editors, we run it for us and some clients as a Wiki Engine, where they use books as projects.
Source: medevel.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, BookStack seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 3 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Pmwiki mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Pmwiki yet. Tracking of Pmwiki recommendations started around Mar 2021.

BookStack mentions (3)

  • Customize the theme a bit?
    That said, is it possible to customize the theme a bit? Specifically, how can I set the code-block background to dark-grey? Also, how can I make the horizontal line a bit taller than 1px? I saw the Customizing Visuals page on bookstackapp.com (specifically the "Changing Code Block Themes" topic) but was a little lost on exactly how to make the changes. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Looking to move internal docs from share Onenote to.. ?
    Maybe look at BookStack to see if it fits your needs. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Self hosting WordPress website
    If you’re looking for a books-styled documentation platform, look into https://bookstackapp.com. Source: over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pmwiki and BookStack, you can also consider the following products

Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware - Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware, also known as Tiki (or TikiWiki), is a full-featured, web-based, multilingual, all-in-one Free/Libre Open Source Software solution. Tiki can be used to create all kinds of web apps, portals, knowledge bases, intranets, etc.

DokuWiki - DokuWiki is a simple to use and highly versatile Open Source wiki software that doesn't require a database.

TiddlyWiki - a non-linear personal web notebook

MediaWiki - MediaWiki is a free software wiki package written in PHP, originally for use on Wikipedia.

WikkaWiki - WikkaWiki is a flexible, standards-compliant and lightweight wiki engine written in PHP.

XWiki - A powerful Open Source collaborative platform enhancing collaboration and communication.