What is MediaWiki used for?

MediaWiki is the free PHP wiki software that powers Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites, extensible with hundreds of extensions and available in many languages. It is a good fit for company or community knowledge bases, public documentation wikis and collaborative encyclopedias.

Is MediaWiki open source?

Yes. MediaWiki is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at wikimedia/mediawiki and is written mainly in PHP.

Yes. MediaWiki is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

Can I self-host MediaWiki?

Yes. MediaWiki can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is MediaWiki an alternative to?

MediaWiki is an open-source alternative to Confluence. Other open-source alternatives to Confluence include BookStack, Outline and Docmost.

Is MediaWiki actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to MediaWiki was on 2 October 2026. The project has 5.2k stars on GitHub.

MediaWiki: open-source alternative to Confluence

About MediaWiki

MediaWiki is free, open-source wiki software written in PHP. It was created for and still runs Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects, which gives it a long record at very large scale. Anyone can install it to host a knowledge base, documentation site or community encyclopedia.

The README describes it as extensible, with hundreds of extensions for both the on-wiki experience and the back end, and as scalable enough for small and large sites alike. It is simple to install on most hardware and software combinations and is localized in more than 350 languages, with a large community of third-party users and developers around it. System requirements and installation steps are documented on the project site.

The GitHub repository is a mirror of the code reviewed on Wikimedia's Gerrit server, and contributors are directed to the developer access page. MediaWiki is released under the GNU General Public License, which GitHub reports as 'Other'. You host it yourself, or use one of the many third-party wiki hosting providers.

Key features

Collaborative wiki editing with page history
Hundreds of extensions for added functionality
Localized in more than 350 languages
Scales from small sites to very large ones
Simple installation on common hosting setups
Powers Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects

Good fit for

→Company or community knowledge bases
→Public documentation wikis
→Collaborative encyclopedias

Built with: PHP
Tags: wiki; php; knowledge-base; wikipedia; collaboration; documentation; self-hosted; cms

MediaWiki: questions and answers

What is MediaWiki used for?: MediaWiki is the free PHP wiki software that powers Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites, extensible with hundreds of extensions and available in many languages. It is a good fit for company or community knowledge bases, public documentation wikis and collaborative encyclopedias.
Is MediaWiki open source?: Yes. MediaWiki is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at wikimedia/mediawiki and is written mainly in PHP.
Is MediaWiki free?: Yes. MediaWiki is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
Can I self-host MediaWiki?: Yes. MediaWiki can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is MediaWiki an alternative to?: MediaWiki is an open-source alternative to Confluence. Other open-source alternatives to Confluence include BookStack, Outline and Docmost.
Is MediaWiki actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to MediaWiki was on 2 October 2026. The project has 5.2k stars on GitHub.