Self-Hosted Wiki

A practical comparison of different wiki soltuions for self-hosted ICT documentation.

Why Documentation Matters

For system administrators, documentation is not optional, it is essential. While few people enjoy sitting down to write documentation, the right tools can significantly reduce the friction involved.

A well-designed wiki platform makes it easier to capture, organise, and maintain knowledge.

Documentation means different things to different teams, and that is perfectly fine. Personally, I favour comprehensive documentation, even if it feels slightly excessive. When deploying a new system, capturing all configuration details ensures that knowledge is shared, accessible, and reusable.

High-quality, well-maintained documentation becomes a single source of truth. It reduces reliance on individual memory and allows administrators to focus on solving problems rather than recalling past configurations.

Wiki System Requirements

When selecting a documentation platform, the following requirements are important to me:

Core Requirements

Self-hosted: Maintain full control over data and reduce ongoing costs
Secure web interface: Accessible while protecting sensitive information
Granular permissions: Control access (e.g. read-only vs edit rights)
Lightweight: Efficient use of server resources
Clean, intuitive UI: Encourages adoption and usability
Version history: Track changes and roll back when needed
Backup and restore: Protect against data loss
Structured organisation: Logical hierarchy for content

Content Capabilities

Text formatting and headings
Code snippets
Image embedding
File attachments
Hyperlinks
Callouts (Info, Note, Warning, Danger)
Embedded video

Nice-to-Have Features

Markdown support
Diagram integration
Reusable content templates
Task lists (checkbox support)

BookStack Overview

BookStack is a simple, self-hosted wiki designed with usability in mind. Its structure is intentionally straightforward:

Pages belong to Chapters
Chapters belong to Books
Books can be grouped into Shelves

This hierarchy makes organisation easy, although users accustomed to expandable tree navigation may find overall visibility somewhat limited.

Despite this, BookStack meets all core requirements and the Nice-to-Have features outlined above.

Key Features

Clean and user-friendly interface
Built-in version control
Role-based access control (users, groups, permissions)
Audit logging
Branding customisation
Email notifications and webhooks
Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
External authentication support (SAML2, OIDC, LDAP)
Proxy support

Content Features

WYSIWYG editor
Markdown editor
Image and file embedding
Page templates
Diagram support via integration with https://app.diagrams.net/

System Requirements (BookStack)

Linux or Docker
2 CPU cores (recommended)
Minimum 1 GB RAM
MySQL or MariaDB database
PHP and Composer
Apache or Nginx web server
Git

Docker Compose Installation (BookStack)

services:

  bookstack:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:version-v26.03.3
    container_name: bookstack
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - APP_URL=http://localhost:6875
      # docker run -it --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest appkey
      - APP_KEY=base64:REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_OWN_KEY
      - DB_HOST=mariadb
      - DB_PORT=3306
      - DB_DATABASE=bookstack
      - DB_USERNAME=bookstack
      - DB_PASSWORD=REPLACE_WITH_SECURE_PASSWORD
    volumes:
      - app-data:/config
    ports:
      - 6875:80
    restart: unless-stopped

  mariadb:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/mariadb:latest
    container_name: bookstack_mariadb
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=REPLACE_WITH_SECURE_PASSWORD
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=bookstack
      - MYSQL_USER=bookstack
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=REPLACE_WITH_SECURE_PASSWORD
    volumes:
      - db-data:/config
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  app-data:
  db-data:

Default Credentials (BookStack)

Username: [email protected]
Password: password

Change these credentials immediately after first login.

Wiki.js Overview

Homepage: https://js.wiki/

Wiki.js is a powerful and highly customisable wiki platform. Compared to BookStack, it is slightly more complex offering a modern user experience and a wide range of integrations.

Unlike traditional wiki systems, Wiki.js does not rely on a strict folder-based hierarchy. Instead, it uses path-based organisation, where content structure is inferred from URL paths.

Wiki.js provides several navigation modes:

Site Tree - Classic tree-based navigation
Static - Navigation menu only
Custom - Static menu with optional site tree access
None - No built-in navigation

While flexible, these options can feel less intuitive compared to the BookStack approach.

Features

Diagram support via integration with https://app.diagrams.net/
Advanced Markdown editor with built-in tools (callouts, diagrams, etc.)
Multiple editor types (not all features are shared across editors)
Custom CSS per page
Configurable storage backends for backup and synchronisation

Editors

Markdown
Visual Editor (WYSIWYG)
AsciiDoc
HTML (Code editor)
Template editor

Platform Features

Version control
User registration
Branding
User management, groups, and roles
Email support
MFA and external authentication (SAML2, OIDC, LDAP)

System Requirements (Wiki.js)

Linux, Windows, macOS, or Docker
2 CPU cores (recommended)
Minimum 1 GB RAM
PostgreSQL (recommended)
Node.js

Docker Installation (Wiki.js)

services:

  db:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: wiki
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: REPLACE_WITH_SECURE_PASSWORD
      POSTGRES_USER: wikijs
    logging:
      driver: none
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  wiki:
    image: ghcr.io/requarks/wiki:2
    depends_on:
      - db
    init: true
    environment:
      DB_TYPE: postgres
      DB_HOST: db
      DB_PORT: 5432
      DB_USER: wikijs
      DB_PASS: REPLACE_WITH_SECURE_PASSWORD
      DB_NAME: wiki
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:3000"

volumes:
  db-data:

Default Credentials (Wiki.js)

Username: [email protected]
Password: password