Starting and Running a Wiki Website/Hosted Wikis

There are companies that host wikis for free or for a price. This means that you do not have to deal with complex programs like Ruby, PHP, MySQL, or Apache. The wiki host will do this for you.

Beware! Some hosts delete wikis without notice. Make sure you are saving your own backup copy of the data in your wiki. Some hosts make it easy to download everything you would need to run your wiki somewhere else, by using an open source wiki engine and providing backup dumps with full edit histories. Other hosts lock you in more, e.g., with proprietary wiki markup languages, proprietary wiki engines, or limited backups.

Free wiki hosting

Comparisons of wikifarms can be found here on Wikipedia, here on MediaWiki and below.

@Wiki(Atwiki)

Includes a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and Wiki-mode editor. Users receive a sub-domain and personal wiki upon signup. Unlimited pages and users.English documentation is minimal and it is unclear how to backup pages. Now allows MediaWiki-like monobook. (Atwiki has temporarily stopped new registration as of October 2011.)

Cospire

Includes a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, category tree, annotations, article ratings, member profiles/reputations, and options on article and member permissions. Although current advertising is limited, ads might be added sidebars to cover hosting expenses.

Frihost

Free webhosting that supports most wikis. Manual installation of a wiki is required. No ads and users receive their own subdomain. Users need to be active at the forum to keep their wiki.

GForge

People who put their source code at GForge also get a free associated wiki.

Intodit

User friendly WYSIWYG Editing, Custom Page Hierarchies, Comment and Reply Forums, Page Locking, Keyword Search, Skins, RSS, Profiles, Site Activity Report, Widget Support e.g., YouTube and Google Video.

MemeBot

Hosting based on Oddmuse. FTP and CGI access allows expert users to customize their configuration. Users receive their own sub-domain.

MyWikis

Everyone gets their wiki and can customize it however they wish. No staff user groups except in the main wiki, and all plans are currently free. You cannot create a wiki automatically but this allows for us to customize your wiki upon the request!

OddWiki

Hosts wikis up to a certain size with no advertising. Based on the MotherWiki concept. Simple support for backup and migration to your own Oddmuse wiki.

ScribbleWiki

ScribbleWiki is now down, permanently.

SeedWiki

SeedWiki is now down, apparently permanently.

ServerSideWiki

Collect notes, todos, personal information, you name it. Based on TiddlyWiki. Hosts free and paid wikis.

SourceForge

As of 19 Jun 2012, SourceForge no longer supports Hosted Apps, including MediaWiki. SF projects may migrate current MediaWikis, or install their own wiki using their Project Web.

TiddlySpot

Public or private access to wikis based on TiddlyWiki yet fully compatible with MonkeyPirateTW, MonkeyGTD and d3 plugins. Brilliant for notes, todos, follow-ups. Easy for download, edit off-line and keep the online version up-to-date, or even easier to edit on-line (password protected). Hosts free wikis.

WetPaint

True WYSIWYG Editing, Custom Page Hierarchies, Comment and Reply Forums with Comment Ratings, Access Control, Keyword Search, Tags, Tag Filtering, Skins, RSS, Page Locking, Profiles, Site Activity Report, Page and Comment Watching, Uploading YouTube Videos.

Wikia

Community support and development through advertising-supported wiki hosting. Uses the MediaWiki engine with WYSIWYG editing, easy image and video insertion, and a number of extensions. Wikis are community owned, not owned by the person "founding" the wiki. All content is freely licensed under the GFDL to make it compatible with the Wikimedia projects. See Start a new Wikia to create a wiki instantly. Offers free database backups, full CSS customization, spam blacklisting and vandal patrol, help from Community Team.

Wikidot

Offers free Wiki sites in the wikidot.com subdomain and 1 free custom domain mapping. Uses the modified Text_Wiki engine to produce valid XHTML. Growing number of extensions. Several available licenses (Creative Commons, GFDL and others), customizable themes, AJAX interface, no size/traffic limits, full-text search, RSS import and export (for page changes, forum discussions, favorite items, account notifications etc.) and many more features.

Wikihost

Hosting using the GeboGebo engine with all its features (as AutoLink, RSS-Feeds, file and image uploads, etc.). Supported by Google text ads. Offers a scriptable export function for backups.

WikiLot

Wikilot closed down in August 2008. Afterwards, domain and backup data have been purchased by Wikia to offer a new home to the wikis that were hosted there.

Wiki-site.com

MediaWiki with WYSIWYG farm with unlimited pages and users, wiki spam protection user rights control. Interface in 150 languages. Fast setup. A free *.wiki-site.com domain is offered. Google text-ads added to the right sidebar.

Wikisites.com

100% Free wiki hosting, Free wikis with unlimited pages and users. Wikis are grouped in categories of Games,Videos, Music, Forums, Blogs,Galeries,Celebrities, Sports, News, Arts, Directories, Learning, Projects, and Hobbies. A free *.wikisites.com sub-domain is offered.

Wikispaces

Public (free), protected (paid for), and private (paid for) wikis. Includes WYSIWYG and plain wikitext editing and a personalized sub-domain. Supported by text ads; no limitations on number of pages, members, or space usage. Includes integrated discussion areas and RSS feeds for page changes and messages. Backups of current content available through the site in zip or tgz form. Backups of historical information available by request. Run by Tanigent LLC using proprietary wiki software.

Wiki Spot

Public wikis (free) intended for a community, be it a city, common interest, field of study, or project with several participants. (No private or commercial wikis, please.) Hosted by a non-profit organization supported by donations, you can host your wiki in an established wiki community that can help you out with your project. No advertising, user accounts work on all wikis, use bookmarks and track changes across multiple wikis. Customizable CSS by wiki and user CSS. Simple, intuitive syntax. No limits on pages/disk space. RSS feeds available on all pages. Easy to create a wiki and configure settings. Run on Sycamore, creative commons licensing.

Wikkii

Free MediaWiki hosting allowing full back-end control with FTP and Cpanel access. Wiki farm service also available. See its features.

XWiki

Hosting based on the XWiki engine. Features include quick group editing, version control of documents, attached files, searching, wiki syntax, and rights management). Pages can be exported to PDF. Full MySQL exports can be provided by the host admin and installed using the open source XWiki engine.