About Raneto
Raneto is a free, open-source knowledge base for Node.js that is powered by Markdown. All content lives in plain files on disk, so pages can be written in any editor, versioned with Git and moved around without exporting from a database.
Visitors can search both file names and page contents, and a Markdown editor is available in the browser. A login system protects editing, with admin credentials and a session secret set through environment variables or the config file. Further settings cover the content directory, base URL, site title, locale, Google Analytics ID and the address and port the server listens on.
The project positions itself as simple and lightweight, with a live demo, documentation and a mailing list for news and security alerts. It is written in JavaScript, tagged as self-hosted, and released under the MIT licence.
Key features
- File-based Markdown content
- Search across file names and contents
- Markdown editor in the browser
- Login system to protect editing
- Configuration through environment variables
- Locale and UI translation settings
Good fit for
- →Internal documentation and FAQs
- →Public help center backed by Markdown files
- Built with
- JavaScript
- Tags
- wiki
- knowledge-base
- markdown
- nodejs
- self-hosted
- documentation
- file-based
Raneto: questions and answers
- What is Raneto used for?
- Raneto is a simple Markdown-based knowledge base wiki for Node.js that serves file-based content with search, a browser editor and optional login. It is a good fit for internal documentation and FAQs, and public help center backed by Markdown files.
- Is Raneto open source?
- Yes. Raneto is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at ryanlelek/Raneto and is written mainly in JavaScript.
- Is Raneto free?
- Yes. Raneto is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host Raneto?
- Yes. Raneto can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
- What is Raneto an alternative to?
- Raneto is an open-source alternative to GitBook, Confluence, Document360 and Helpjuice. Other open-source alternatives to GitBook include Wiki.js, BookStack and PandaWiki.
- Is Raneto actively maintained?
- The most recent commit to Raneto was on 18 March 2026, and the latest release is 0.18.1, published on 11 March 2026. The project has 2.9k stars on GitHub.
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