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Content & Sites

DokuWiki

Mark

• 2 min read

DokuWiki is a lightweight, open-source PHP wiki designed for documentation and knowledge bases. It stores pages as plain text files (no database), provides revision history, full-text search, ACLs, and a plugin system — making it a practical choice for teams that want a simple, self-hosted documentation platform.

It’s aimed at small-to-medium teams, self-hosting enthusiasts and homelab users who need low-overhead hosting, easy backups, and integration with existing auth systems (LDAP, OAuth). Its strengths are simplicity, portability and extensibility; its trade-offs are plugin maintenance and a less modern default UI.

Use Cases

  • Internal knowledge base for engineering, operations, or HR where fine-grained ACLs and SSO/LDAP integration are required.
  • Project documentation for small teams or open-source projects hosted on inexpensive VPS, shared hosting, or Raspberry Pi.
  • Compliance or regulated environments that prefer plain-text storage and straightforward file backups over database-dependent systems.
  • Homelab and self-hosting environments where low resource usage and simple installation matter.
  • Multilingual documentation sites that need translations without adding external services.

Strengths

  • File-based storage (no database): Pages stored as text files simplify backups, migration and reduce operational complexity.
  • Low resource footprint: Runs on any PHP-capable host, suitable for cheap VPS or Raspberry Pi.
  • ACLs and pluggable authentication: Granular permissions and connectors for LDAP, OAuth and other auth systems make it suitable for intranets.
  • Extensible plugin ecosystem: Many community plugins add editors, export formats, integrations and more.
  • Built-in features useful for docs: Revision history, diffs, full-text search, media manager and templates.
  • Easy installation and maintenance: Web installer and plain files make setup, backup and restore straightforward.
  • Open source (GPL): No licensing fees and freedom to modify or self-host without vendor lock-in.

Limitations

  • Plugin maintenance fragmentation: Many useful plugins are community-maintained and can become outdated or incompatible after core updates.
  • Risk from unmaintained plugins: Relying on abandoned plugins can lead to feature gaps or security issues.
  • Default UI is dated: The out-of-the-box look prioritizes simplicity; modernizing the UI may require themes or custom CSS.
  • Requires PHP and correct file permissions: Administrators must manage PHP versions, webserver configuration and secure filesystem permissions.
  • Compatibility overhead: Core upgrades or PHP changes may require testing and updating multiple plugins.
  • Not a cloud-native enterprise SaaS: If you need built-in analytics, federated search across services, or guaranteed plugin maintenance, a managed platform may be a better fit.

Final Thoughts

DokuWiki is a pragmatic choice when you want a dependable, low‑overhead wiki for documentation that is easy to back up and run on modest infrastructure. Its file-based model, ACLs and extensibility make it especially attractive for internal documentation and self-hosters who value control and simplicity.

If you choose DokuWiki: test plugins in a staging environment, pin and document plugin versions, keep PHP and the server updated, automate file-based backups (pages, media, conf), enable HTTPS and configure ACLs thoughtfully. If you need enterprise-grade SaaS features or a polished, modern UI out of the box, evaluate hosted documentation platforms alongside DokuWiki.

References

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