Free+and+easy+wikis

=Free and easy wikis=

On 10 Jan 08, Adrian Young asked the list for advice regarding wiki software that is both easy to use and (importantly) free. The following is a modified compilation of the responses.

This page has some good comments and opinions, but **WikiMatrix** ([|http://www.wikimatrix.org/] )is a regularly-updated site which allows for comparison of various wiki software. Though it's not as clear-cut as camel case vs. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing modes - WYSIWYG is not fool-proof. It also has a list of consultants who can provide more information about each product.

Deki Wiki: free open source wiki and application platform for communities and enterprises - []

Wikispaces: real WYSIWYG editing and a simple interface. Users get a subdomain on wikispaces.com. Free version supported by Google ads. No limits on numbers of pages, spaces, or members. Full RSS support; easy space backups in zip, tgz, complete linked HTML. Integration with Blogger and Typepad. Free spaces can choose from a variety of themes, paid spaces may edit their own HTML templates and CSS. Supports OpenID logins - http://www.wikispaces.com/

PBWiki: Free and apparently very good WYSIWYG editing. Easy to set up templates and control style sheets to change the appearance of the standard skins. Some perceived disadvantages in the process to grant people access to your wiki (although this may be different in pay-for-use versions. Also the amount of disk space is fairly limited in the free version - [|www.pbwiki.com]

SocialText: Well regarded, but only free for up to 5 users. WYSIWYG editing - [|www.socialtext.com]

WetPaint: Free with extensive WYSIWYG editing and easy to use editing tools - [|www.wetpaint.com]

Wikidot: A new kid on the wiki hosting block (as of May 2008). Strangely, it has no WYSIWYG, but otherwise it looks very good -[]

Mediawiki: free software wiki package originally written for Wikipedia. Fairly simple for IT-literate folks to use - potentially a barrier for other contributors who might require some coaching. Easy to install but requires some expertise to configure and customise. WYSIWYG editing is an add-in, but has good editing commands - []

XWiki [] Open source and it looks very professional. Basically a Java implementation of TWiki

TWiki: Very powerful and popular open source wiki []

Confluence: Only free for non profit, open source companies and single users. The leading enterprise wiki [|http://confluence.atlassian.com.]