Project ManagementProductivityWeb DevelopmentWiki

What is the best single-user wiki?

14

Options
Considered

148

User
Recs.

Mar 31, 2019

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

11 Options Considered

Best single-user wiki	Price	Platforms	License
83 TiddlyWiki	Free	Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android	BSD
-- DokuWiki	Free	-	-
-- VoodooPad 5	FREE/24.99	-	-
-- Zim	Free	-	GPL
-- Tomboy	FREE	Windows; OSX; Linux	-

TiddlyWiki

Top Pro

Free and Open Source

No commercial interests, no ads, no registration, no nonsense. You own your notes 100%. See More

Top Con

Relies on browser performance, online or offline

TiddlyWiki is a single HTML file. Thus, if you directly embed e. g large images or videos in it (instead of using the features to display externally stored images and videos) it would make the file big and performance slow. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

A non-linear personal notebook written in JavaScript used as a single HTML file in the browser or as a powerful Node.js application. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android

Collaborative:No

Top Pro

Self-hosted and indefinitely accessible

All content is stored within the same html file as the interface. See More

Top Con

Without JavaScript nothing is visible

Rizwan Ishak's Experience

It can be run as an HTML file or using an in built node server in which case your information is stored in flat file formats See More

Top Pro

Extremely customizable

This is a major aim and point with TiddlyWiki; people can relatively easily modify it to fit their particular application needs. See More

BraveTiddalik's Experience

Tiddlywiki is by far the most versatile of all personal Wiki's I know See More

Top Pro

Lots of plugins

Top Pro

Single html file

It's a single file and all your notes will be "accessible even in 25 years" because they can be seen in plain html text. See More

Top Pro

Relational links

Allows for relational links and lists between notes to keep things organized. See More

Top Pro

10+ years mature

Mature software, active community with members from all over the world. See More

Top Pro

Progressive user level, from ease of use to programming your own plugins

Basic users can start with simple note-taking, progressively discover predefined features and existing plugins, then start using more fancy features (like filters, widgets, macros), in order to adapt their wiki to their needs. See More

Top Pro

Multiple, user-defined usages

The list of possible usages is practically infinite in TW, and more importantly it lets the user define their own method of dealing with their content. See More

DokuWiki

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Highly customizable

You can use themes and plugins to extend functionality. See More

Top Con

Too complex for many use-cases

Specs

Local hosting:Yes

Top Pro

Free and open source

Licensed under GPL2. See More

Top Con

Lots of plugins to manage

DokuWiki is highly modular. Even things like WYSIWYG editors and categories have to be added separately as plugins. This can quickly lead to managing lots of plugins. See More

Top Pro

Runs on any PHP server

It requires a webserver running PHP 5.2 or later of any kind. See More

Top Con

It is very difficult to set up on a linux environment

Top Pro

Good selection of plugins

DokuWiki offers over a thousand plugins to extend its functionality. See More

Top Pro

Access control

DokuWiki has built-in ACL support. See More

Top Pro

Plain-text file storage

Dokuwiki does not require a database, it stores everything in plain-text. See More

Top Pro

Easy to set up and mantain

To install you need a webserver running PHP 5.2 or later where you unpack the downloaded archive and navigate to install.php in your browser, fill out the necessary information required for the one-page installer and you are done. See More

Top Pro

Version control

Dokuwik offers unlimited page revisions. See More

VoodooPad 5

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Markdown support

You can use Markdown syntax to write your documents. See More

Top Con

Costs $24.99 USD

Price can be found here: http://www.voodoopad.com/ See More

Top Pro

Good task management features

Within the collections palette you'll find "to-dos" that are all @todo entries that you've left across all of your pages. See More

Top Con

OS X only

There are no Windows or Linux versions of VoodooPad. See More

Top Pro

Synchronize via Dropbox

You can utilize Dropbox to keep VoodooPad synchronized across all of your devices and allow for collaboration with other people. See More

Top Con

Breaks compatibility with VoodooPad 4

VoodooPad 5 uses a new file format that is not backwards compatible. See More

Top Pro

A desktop wiki

VoodooPad 5 is focused on use by an individual. It is a mature application. Its polished refinements are based upon many years of user experiences and feedback. See More

Top Pro

Java scriptlet & Event scripts support

To dynamically change HTML, ePub and PDF exports you can use Java scriptlets. To extend the functionality of VoodooPad you can use Event scripts. See More

Top Pro

Export to ePub and PDF

Alongside being able to export a page as HTML, RTFD, Plain Text, or as a Word Document, you can export the whole document as XML, RTFD, Plain Text, .doc, ePub, PDF or to an iOS device via VP Reader. See More

Top Pro

Collections palette

Collections allow creating an organizational structure of your pages. See More

Zim

Top Pro

Good export options

Zim supports HTML, LaTeX, Pandoc Markdown, and RST. This allows ones documents to be easily used in a wide selection of other apps. Plus exporting to html can be easily scripted, and placed in Dropbox, then opened on your mobile device. See More

Stir Fry's Experience

Vim is an excellent client for coding or taking notes, so long as you accept that you are using a test editor not a modern publishing program. One can choose colour themes to apply - some of which help with eye strain when you are working for 8 hrs on a file - but ultimately WYSIWYG. See More

Specs

Top Pro

Support for multiple platforms

Windows, Linux, and BSD are supported with their own clients. This is nice for those that use multiple operating systems but still want to use the same app on each. See More

CooperativeEgeria's Experience

Been using it for at least 3 yrs for work and personal use. See More

Top Pro

Plain text data format rather than proprietary

If/when the app is no longer developed (or if the user simply decides to no longer use the application or view/edit it on a non-supported platform), this can still be done with any plain-text editor. See More

Top Pro

Automatically manages files and folders

Zim will automatically create a folder structure that fits your page hierarchy and adds/removes files such as images to/from appropriate folders. See More

Top Pro

Allows for organized, wiki-style navigation

Notes can contain links to other notes, allowing you to reference important information when needed. This way the user can connect and reference many different pages in the app, keeping things clean and structured, unlike Evernote, which makes this a good Evernote alternative. See More

Zim Wiki w/ journal plugin

Add Video or Image

WackoWiki

Add Video or Image

MDwiki

Add Video or Image

Top Con

Discontinued

Seems to be discontinued as of October 2018. See More

Top Pro

Possibly more secure on web server

Due to the lack of a built-in editor MDwiki may be less susceptible to spam and defacement compared to other options when served from a web server. See More

Top Con

External program must be used for editing

A separate program must be used to make changes to documents as MDwiki lacks a built-in editor. See More

Top Pro

Doesn't require a web server

MDwiki is a self-contained JavaScript app that is very fast and can run in some web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox. See More

Top Con

Requires additional permissions in Google Chrome

Supposedly, you can get it to work in Google Chrome by modifying JavaScript permissions, but these same changes may decrease security. See More

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