Content & Sites

Wiki.js

Mark

04 Nov 2025 • 1 min read

Wiki.js is a modern, open-source, Node.js-based wiki engine for writing, organizing, and versioning team documentation in Markdown or a visual editor. It provides a fast, extensible docs layer with page versioning, search, rich auth, and Git integration.

It fits individuals and small to mid teams that need a single, searchable place for how-tos, runbooks, policies, and design notes. It consolidates scattered notes, repos, and shared drives into versioned pages with access controls and history for auditability. Admins get SSO, LDAP, and Git sync for governance and backups. It is AGPL-licensed.

Use Cases

Personal Markdown knowledge base and notes.
Static README or FAQ site export for side projects.
Household wiki for recipes, checklists, and finances.
Team onboarding guides and internal runbooks.
Data team docs: Snowflake models and dbt lineage notes.
Governance pages with controlled access and audit trails.

Strengths

Markdown and WYSIWYG editors lower barrier for non-technical writers.
Page version history and comparison enable auditable rollbacks.
Enterprise auth: LDAP, SAML, Azure AD, and social providers.
Git sync and export support docs-as-code workflows.
Built-in full-text search improves findability across documentation.
Asset uploads and thumbnails allow richer pages with files.
Self-hosting keeps data local, avoids license fees, and enables control.

Limitations

Limited real-time co-editing compared with commercial collaboration platforms.
No firm public ETA for the 3.0 stable release (Unverified).
Project cadence driven by a small core team can be slow.
Migrating heavy customizations requires effort despite content exportability.
Browser-based UI; no first-class native mobile app noted.

Final Thoughts

Try Wiki.js now if you need a self-hosted, Markdown-friendly docs layer with SSO, Git export, and basic ops capacity. Wait if you require vendor SLAs, advanced real-time editing, or cannot accept AGPL licensing.

A managed cloud or vendor solution makes sense when you need guaranteed SLAs, managed upgrades, and commercial support. That option adds vendor uptime commitments and predictable release management.