XWiki Review, Pricing & Features

See what XWiki offers: a free, open-source enterprise wiki for documentation and knowledge management, plus its app-building tools, pricing tiers, and features.

Category
Knowledge Base
Pricing
freemium, from Free self-hosted Community edition; paid support and cloud plans start at roughly 2 euros per user per month, billed annually
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2004
Headquarters
Paris, France
Web AppAPIOpen Source

What Is XWiki

XWiki is an open-source enterprise wiki platform that has been under continuous development since 2004. It is built and maintained by XWiki SAS, a company based in Paris, France, and is distributed under the LGPL open-source license, meaning the core software can be downloaded, self-hosted, and used commercially without paying a license fee.

What sets XWiki apart from simpler wiki tools is its dual identity as both a documentation platform and an application framework. Pages can contain structured data, forms, and scripted macros, which means teams can build small internal applications, such as inventories, issue trackers, or approval workflows, directly inside the wiki rather than relying on a separate tool.

XWiki is commonly used by IT departments, universities, government agencies, and software teams that want an enterprise-grade knowledge base they fully control, either self-hosted on their own infrastructure or run on XWiki's managed cloud offering.

Key Features

XWiki supports both WYSIWYG editing and wiki syntax, along with OpenDocument-based import and export, page annotations, tagging, and threaded comments, making it usable by both technical and non-technical staff.

Permissions are granular, letting administrators control access at the wiki, space, or individual page level, and every edit is versioned so changes can be reviewed or rolled back at any time.

The platform supports wiki farms, meaning a single installation can host many separate wikis for different teams or departments, and it exposes a RESTful API and extension marketplace so it can be integrated with external systems and extended with community-built applications.

Higher-tier commercial plans add single sign-on through OIDC or SAML, dedicated migration tooling from Confluence and SharePoint, and priority support with a named account manager.

Pricing

The XWiki Community edition is entirely free and can be self-hosted with no cap on the number of users, which is the option most technical teams start with.

For organizations that want support, security patches, or managed cloud hosting, XWiki SAS sells four annual subscription tiers: Starter for up to 25 users on the cloud, Basic for up to 1,000 users on cloud or on-premise, Business for up to 10,000 users with SSO and migration tools, and Enterprise for unlimited users with advanced deployment support.

Professional services such as consulting and training are billed separately on a per-day basis, and open-source projects or NGOs can qualify for discounted support pricing and free entry-level cloud hosting.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Free, fully open-source core with no per-user pricing or seat caps
  • Doubles as a lightweight application-building platform, not just a documentation wiki
  • Strong version history and granular permissions suited to enterprise knowledge bases
  • Can be fully self-hosted for organizations with data residency or control requirements
  • Over two decades of continuous open-source development with an active extension ecosystem

Cons

  • The interface feels dated next to modern SaaS knowledge tools like Notion or Confluence
  • Self-hosting requires ongoing server maintenance and technical know-how
  • Confluence and SharePoint migration tools are reserved for Business-tier and above
  • Building custom applications on top of wiki pages has a learning curve for non-developers

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is XWiki free to use?

Yes. The Community edition is free and open-source and can be self-hosted with no limit on users. Paid plans add support, security patches, and cloud hosting.

Is XWiki open source?

Yes, XWiki is distributed under the LGPL license and its source code is publicly available.

Can XWiki replace Confluence?

Many organizations use XWiki as a self-hosted Confluence alternative, and paid tiers include dedicated tooling to help migrate content from Confluence.

Does XWiki offer managed cloud hosting?

Yes, XWiki SAS offers cloud-hosted plans starting with the Starter tier, in addition to self-hosted deployment.

Can XWiki be used to build applications, not just wiki pages?

Yes, XWiki includes a scripting and macro layer that lets users create structured data forms and small internal applications inside the wiki.

Does XWiki support single sign-on?

OIDC and SAML single sign-on are available starting at the Business tier and above.

How is XWiki different from MediaWiki?

XWiki adds structured data, application-building macros, and enterprise permissions on top of standard wiki editing, whereas MediaWiki is closer to a pure documentation wiki.

Who is behind XWiki?

XWiki is developed by XWiki SAS, a company founded in 2004 and headquartered in Paris, France, with the software released under an open-source license.

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