Wiki software is a type of collaborative web-based content management system. It allows users to create and edit web pages with minimal technical knowledge.
The “wiki” part of wiki software is an online encyclopedia or information portal that can be easily edited. By using appropriate wiki software, you’ll be able to ensure that your employees can access and share information among each other for more efficient internal collaboration.
Modern wiki software can also help with password recovery, self-registration, and the recovery of deleted files. The best wiki software allows your users many configuration opportunities, customization options, and documentation applications to help streamline their work. It's important to choose the right wiki software for your organization.
As a form of collaborative management software, wiki software generally refers to software that enables users to create and edit entries of information through a website or other interface.
Wiki software can be an incredibly convenient way to share company information between employees by creating a knowledge base through which individual employees can pull company-relevant information.
Wiki software works through the entries of many contributors which can then be collaboratively edited. The capability to edit the content on a feature-rich online encyclopedia can vastly improve productivity and performance in the workplace.
Wiki software is typically hosted on a large company’s wiki servers and either comes in software-as-a-service (SaaS) business models or open-source models. While open-source software is free to use, it can be highly limited in terms of functionality and features without specialized training or a software developer on staff.
Open-source software may also lack some of the security benefits that modern wiki software contains. The best wiki software, therefore, tends to stay within the range of paid subscription models.
However, if you’re willing to put up with manually setting up your company wiki and doing some coding on your own, you could try out an open-source option.
Wiki software falls into the broader category of knowledge management software, which can drastically help your employees work more effectively and efficiently by supporting improved communication.
The best wiki software can also:
And of course, collaboration and communication both become easier with the best wiki software.
The best wiki software should be highly feature-rich while still being simple and easy to learn and use.
Important functionalities in wiki software may include:
You can also try to pay attention to industry-specific features for your company. For example, if you rely heavily on a specific type of software, make sure the wiki software you use already integrates with it.
Finally, different wiki software providers charge different rates, so you want to be able to balance price, performance, and features to decide which wiki software is best for your use case.
Almanac is by far one of the best wiki software brands out there, featuring:
You can also take advantage of expert tools such as Command Line, which allows users to perform any actions within the software through text exclusively.
Check out an interactive demo here:
Almanac also comes with rich-media support through Dynamic Elements and over 3000 open-source templates. If you’re looking for a quality wiki software with multiple functionalities, then Almanac is no doubt going to be the best option for wiki software for most users.
Take a look at this chart that shows exactly why:
Wiki.js is notable as an instance of an open-source wiki software suitable for corporate and business use. It offers fast performance by:
However, like all open-source software, Wiki.js lacks the same level of support and customer service that you might find with a subscription-based wiki software, as well as more advanced features such as organizational tools or powerful word-processing options.
Pricing
Despite its shortcomings, it is free, which is a big plus!
A commonly recommended option, Guru offers a simple interface and a clean look. It comes with a variety of features, including:
While the document editor in Guru is a bit more simple than some other options and it lacks the same version management as Almanac, Guru remains a viable option for those looking for a streamlined wiki software experience.
Pricing
Guru offers a free service tier if your company has less than three employees, and then:
With a focus on a minimalistic UI, Slite provides a simple and intuitive user interface and experience. With support for graphics and rich-media content, you’ll be able to use a variety of resources in document entries using Slite, including materials from the free Wikimedia Commons.
However, the document editor is otherwise highly simplified, and it lacks organizational tools to help streamline and expedite access to information without the use of its search function.
Pricing
Slite offers a free service tier for up to 50 documents, and then:
As the name suggests, Gitbook is primarily designed around its integration with Github, with a variety of tools intended for programming and computer code usage. While this doesn’t translate spectacularly well over to its use case as a wiki software, it does provide some tools and features that would be convenient in a wiki software for a specialized programming user base.
Its features include:
These all help make wiki entries and documentation about Github projects and other coding endeavors easier, and organizational tools to help sort documentation help to make Gitbook function as an adequate wiki software for employees to pull information from.
Pricing
GitBook offers a free service tier for unlimited public spaces, and then:
Confluence is one of the older wiki softwares out there, being published for the first time in 2004. The software has a built-in document editor for creating wiki entries, although the editor itself lacks some of the features of more modern wiki software options.
A robust and functional organization framework helps to make wiki entries on Confluence relatively easy to find and accessible as well, although companies looking for a more convenient wiki service with more optimized organizational features might want to look elsewhere.
Pricing
Confluence offers a free service tier if your company has less than ten employees, and then:
Primarily meant for sharing notes between employees and users, Notion functions well as a wiki software by providing a document editor that supports live editing by multiple collaborators, as well as a workspace that serves as a central portal for employees to find entries into a wiki.
You won’t find many more organizational features here, but the basics are all present. Enterprise service also requires speaking with a sales team in order to sign up, a minor but admittedly unpleasant inconvenience.
Pricing
Notion offers a free service tier for individual use, and then:
One of the easiest and simplest wiki softwares on this list, Slab manages to accomplish the task of sharing information between employees with utilitarian efficiency, but it also lacks most of the features and additional benefits of some of its competitors. You’ll find an interface for accessing wiki entries as well as a document editor and that’s about it.
However, Slab makes up for its lack of features by allowing a large number of integrations with a variety of services, including Google Spreadsheets, task managers, flowcharts, and others.
Pricing
Slab offers a free service tier up to ten users, and then:
While all the wiki software compiled in this list will accomplish the task of sharing information between employees well, there is almost no software that performs as an all-rounder better than Almanac.
Between cutting-edge organizational functionality, an abundance of customizable options, and an excellent word processor, Almanac is going to be the best option for most collaborative organizations looking for a modern wiki software with diverse capabilities.
