Everyone in the modern society demands quick access to information. And few of them are willing to pick up a phone and make a call in order to continue accessing it. They need a solution right away, which is why you need to have a knowledge foundation. A wiki-created knowledge base can improve customer satisfaction and assist your team in more effectively organizing important content.
For those of you who are unaware, a “wiki” is a website or server program that facilitates efficient content organization and user collaboration. You can create a Wikipedia-like website for your business needs, much way Wikipedia is constructed. You can choose a self-hosted wiki platform or a hosted (SaaS) one, although I like the former.
Wiki: What Is It?
One common kind of website that allows for open user collaboration is a wiki. The primary feature that distinguishes it from other websites is the ability for anyone with relevant knowledge and interest in the subject matter to edit or add to the page.
Furthermore, wikis’ structure is centered on connecting relevant subjects. This makes it easy for readers to gather contextual information that deepens their comprehension of the subject at hand, while also encouraging visitors to one page to proceed to adjacent pages to learn more.
Wiki Hosting Service: What Is It?
An online wiki can be created, edited, and managed by users through the use of a wiki hosting service. With the aid of wiki platform, users can establish and maintain an online wiki that they can use to jointly build websites or documents or to record information.
Online conversations can also be held in a collaborative environment by using wiki hosting services. While there are other wiki hosting providers, Wikia and MediaWiki are the most widely used ones. Wikia, Inc., a company incorporated in October 2006, is the owner of the free wiki hosting service Wikia. The most widely used hosting wiki platform is MediaWiki, which has more than 26 million active wiki pages.
Features:
Wiki hosting services offer a variety of features to make creating and managing your wiki a breeze. Here are some of the most common features to look for:
Ease of Use:
- WYSIWYG editing: Edit your wiki pages directly, without needing to know any code. Just type and format your text as you would in a word processor.
- Drag-and-drop functionality: Easily add images, videos, and other files to your wiki pages.
- Templates and themes: Choose from a variety of pre-designed templates and themes to get your wiki started quickly and easily.
Collaboration:
- User accounts and permissions: Create user accounts and assign different levels of permissions to control who can edit and view your wiki content.
- Version control: Keep track of changes made to your wiki pages and easily revert to previous versions if necessary.
- Discussion forums: Allow users to discuss wiki topics and collaborate on content.
Customization:
- Plugins and extensions: Add additional features to your wiki, such as polls, quizzes, and calendars.
- Custom CSS and JavaScript: Fine-tune the look and feel of your wiki to match your brand or website.
- Media embedding: Embed videos, images, and other media from other websites into your wiki pages.
Security and Reliability:
- Backups: Ensure your wiki content is safe with regular backups.
- Security updates: Keep your wiki up-to-date with the latest security patches to protect against vulnerabilities.
- Uptime: Choose a hosting provider with a strong uptime record to ensure your wiki is always available.
Pros and Cons of Wiki Hosting Services
Pros:
- Ease of use: Wiki hosting services typically offer user-friendly interfaces and WYSIWYG editing, making it easy for anyone to create and edit content, even without technical knowledge.
- Collaboration: Wikis are inherently collaborative, allowing multiple users to contribute and edit content, making them ideal for projects requiring shared knowledge or brainstorming.
- Scalability: Wiki hosting providers can accommodate wikis of all sizes, from small personal projects to large community-driven sites. You can easily upgrade your plan as your wiki grows.
- Cost-effective: Compared to hiring a developer or setting up your own server, wiki hosting services are a cost-effective way to create and maintain a wiki. Many offer free or affordable plans to suit different needs.
- Features and customization: Many wiki hosting services offer a variety of features and customization options, such as plugins, themes, and extensions, allowing you to tailor your wiki to your specific needs.
- Accessibility: Wikis hosted on reputable services are typically accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, making them ideal for remote collaboration and information sharing.
- Security and reliability: Wiki hosting services take care of server maintenance and security updates, ensuring your wiki is up-to-date and protected from vulnerabilities.
Cons:
- Limited control: With a hosted service, you may have less control over the server environment and software configuration compared to self-hosting.
- Vendor lock-in: Migrating your wiki to another service can be challenging, as your content and data may be locked into the platform.
- Potential for spam and vandalism: Open wikis can be susceptible to spam and vandalism, requiring active moderation to maintain quality content.
- Cost for premium features: While basic plans may be affordable, accessing advanced features or high storage space often requires upgrading to more expensive plans.
- Reliance on the hosting provider: Your wiki’s functionality and availability depend on the reliability and uptime of the hosting service.
- Limited branding options: Some hosting services may limit your ability to fully customize the look and feel of your wiki to match your brand.
What a Wiki Hosting Plan Should Include
When selecting a wiki hosting plan to start your website after selecting your wiki software, there are a few features to keep an eye out for:
Simple Setup: Wiki hosting services have the advantage of being easier to integrate your wiki software with your web hosting account than more all-inclusive web hosting plans. Seek out wiki hosting providers packages that let you install your wiki software with just one click.
Particular Suitability: The majority of wiki hosting packages ought to be compatible with all of the most popular wiki software choices, but just to be sure, confirm that the web hosting package you are considering is compatible with the particular wiki software you have chosen. Many of the wikis we mentioned above, such as MediaWiki, Tiki, PmWiki, and WikkaWiki, are supported by HostGator wiki hosting.
Appropriate Bandwidth: This is crucial if your wiki will be accessible to the public on the whole internet, but it also applies to wikis run by private companies. The amount of content (particularly media and photos) you can post on your wiki and the number of users it can accommodate will depend on its bandwidth. Make sure the web hosting plan you choose can manage a large volume of traffic if you anticipate having a lot of users access and utilize your wiki.
A 99% uptime rate: You want your wiki to be consistently accessible, regardless of whether it is intended for a large or limited audience. The amount of time that a web hosting company maintains its websites accessible is referred to as uptime. The finest web hosting providers guarantee at least 99% uptime; a few even go one step further and include a money-back guarantee in addition to 99.9% uptime.
Client Assistance: Although creating a wiki is rather simple, there’s always a potential that you’ll run into occasional technical difficulties or problems that require assistance with any kind of website. Choose a wiki hosting provider that offers round-the-clock customer service so you can be sure assistance will be there when you need it.
Types Of Wiki Hosting
1. WikkaWiki
Select the WikkaWiki hosting company that can make your wiki site more effective. A2 Hosting is that! Our lightning-fast SwiftServer platform hosts your website. When comparing our Turbo Servers to other emerging WikkaWiki Hosting providers, you can expect up to 20X faster page loads.
2. PmWiki
Another well-known wiki program that is free to use and has features that are helpful for businesses is PmWiki. This is a wiki software version that is quite basic and has all the features you need for a business wiki. Using skins either ones you create yourself or buy pre-made ones—you can quickly alter the look of your PmWiki website. Similar to Tiki, PmWiki uses password protection to allow you to manage who can modify which pages on your wiki site. PmWiki is a good program to create a basic company wiki with if you’re seeking for one.
3. Dokuwiki
Dokuwiki is an open source, free wiki program with an easy-to-use interface. The program’s main functions are simple and easy to use, but it also offers a great deal of customization through various plugins and configurations. For commercial use cases like project management and collaborative corporate workspaces, Dokuwiki is a well-liked option.
Dokuwiki provides access control tools that let wiki authors restrict who can read and edit individual pages, as well as specific areas of pages, just like many of the other options. They also offer revision management and tracking.
4. Matterwiki
A straightforward, user-friendly wiki program designed especially for small enterprises is called Matterwiki. Wiki pages are all categorized under a single topic for easy navigation. The program keeps track of revisions and the authors of each modification. Matterwiki is a fantastic alternative to explore for small teams who want a simple wiki interface because it is easy for employees of all skill levels to utilize.
5 Best Wiki Hosting Providers In 2024
1. Document360
An excellent internal wiki platform, Document360 allows teams to work together, share information, keep track of it all, and manage all company knowledge centrally. It’s the ideal platform for hosting your wiki and sharing and editing papers related to training, onboarding, business policy procedures, process documentation, how-to manuals, and other workplace documents with ease.
Key Features:
Content authoring and organization:
- Easy-to-use editor for creating and formatting content
- Advanced version control and collaboration features
- Structured content organization with categories, subcategories, and nested pages
- Search functionality with robust search algorithms
Knowledge base design and customization:
- Customizable themes and templates to match brand identity
- Flexibility to create different knowledge bases for different products or audiences
- Option to embed knowledge bases within websites or applications
Collaboration and feedback:
- Real-time collaboration for multiple authors and reviewers
- Comment and feedback system for continuous improvement
- User feedback tracking and analytics
Integrations:
- Integrates with popular tools like Slack, Zendesk, Salesforce, and more
- API for custom integrations
Security:
- Role-based access control for managing user permissions
- Secure hosting and data encryption
Analytics and reporting:
- Track knowledge base usage, search patterns, and content performance
- Generate reports to measure impact and identify areas for improvement
Pricing:
Plan | Price (Monthly) | Articles | Users | Storage |
---|---|---|---|---|
Free | $0 | 50 | 3 | 1 GB |
Standard | $149 | 500 | 10 | 5 GB |
Professional | $299 | 2,000 | 25 | 10 GB |
Business | $399 | 5,000 | 50 | 20 GB |
Enterprise | $599 | 10,000 | 100 | 40 GB |
Enterprise+ | Contact for quote | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
2. Vultr
Deploying Mediawiki on Vultr, the open-source software that drives Wikipedia, only requires a single click. You don’t need to be a web designer to create collaborative material for a knowledge base, documentation section, or even news portals using this flexible application.
Key Features:
Cloud Compute: Choose from shared, high-performance, and high-frequency compute instances powered by AMD and Intel CPUs. Shared instances are budget-friendly for general workloads, while high-performance and high-frequency options cater to CPU-intensive and latency-sensitive needs, respectively.
Bare Metal: Gain complete control with dedicated servers fully managed by Vultr. Ideal for businesses requiring maximum security and customization.
Storage: Vultr offers block storage for files and applications, object storage for large data volumes, and managed databases for turnkey database solutions.
Networking: Connect your servers securely with private networks, access the internet via public networks, and distribute traffic efficiently with load balancers.
- Global Reach: Enjoy a vast network of data centers strategically located around the world for optimal performance and redundancy.
- User-Friendly Interface: Manage your Vultr account and resources effortlessly through a simple and intuitive control panel.
- Pay-as-you-go Pricing: Only pay for the resources you use, making Vultr a cost-effective solution for various needs.
- Discounts: Access attractive discounts for long-term commitments and prepayments.
Pricing:
Service | Starting Price per Month |
---|---|
Cloud Compute (Shared Instances) | $5 |
Cloud Compute (High Performance Instances) | $25 |
Cloud Compute (High Frequency Instances) | $50 |
Bare Metal | $65 |
Block Storage | $0.01/GB |
Object Storage | $0.0125/GB |
Managed Databases | $2.50 |
3. A2Hosting
The wiki solution from A2Hosting, another well-known hosting company, may assist you in creating the wiki platform of your choice, such as MediaWiki, DokuWiki, or TikiWiki. This web host is renowned for its lightning-fast servers since they understand how even a single second of loading time may affect your website’s bounce rate.
Key Features:
Performance and Speed:
- Turbo Servers: Up to 20x faster than standard hosting, powered by NVMe drives, AMD EPYC processors, and optimized software configurations.
Reliability and Support:
- 99.9% Uptime Commitment: Ensures your website stays online consistently.
- 24/7/365 Customer Support: Available via phone, live chat, and email for prompt assistance.
User-Friendly Control Panel:
- cPanel: A popular and intuitive control panel for managing your hosting account, files, databases, emails, and more.
Developer-Friendly Features:
- Unlimited SSD Storage: Plenty of space for your website’s files and content.
- Unlimited Bandwidth: Accommodates high traffic without additional charges.
- Free SSL Certificates: Secure your website with HTTPS for free.
- Free Site Migrations: Smoothly transfer your existing website to A2 Hosting without hassle.
- Root Access: Full control over your server environment for advanced customization.
- Multiple PHP Versions: Supports various PHP versions to cater to different application needs.
One-Click Software Installer:
- Softaculous: Install over 450 popular applications like WordPress, Joomla, Magento, and more with just a few clicks.
Pricing:
Plan | Starting Price (Monthly) | Websites | Storage | Bandwidth | Email Accounts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Startup | $2.99 | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Drive | $4.99 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Turbo Boost | $9.99 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Managed WordPress Hosting
Plan | Starting Price (Monthly) | Websites | Storage | Bandwidth | Visitors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Startup | $11.99 | 1 | 10 GB | Unlimited | 50,000 |
Drive | $15.99 | 1 | 25 GB | Unlimited | 100,000 |
Turbo Boost | $25.99 | 1 | 40 GB | Unlimited | 200,000 |
4. Confluence
Confluence from Atlassian may be necessary to establish your team and facilitate productive collaboration. By using it, you can build an incredibly easy-to-use knowledge base where your team can locate solutions all in one place. In addition, you may set up your fully functional workplace, make project plans, and take notes during meetings.
Your team will be able to announce things and get input from all of the participants in exchange. This supports the validity of worthy notions and ideas. The fact that this business offers templates for practically any purpose is one of my favorite features. It’s not necessary to write something from scratch and distribute it. All you need to do is utilize the templates, enter your information, and proceed.
Key Features:
Content Management:
- Create and edit pages: Build rich content with text, images, videos, tables, and more.
- Version control: Track changes and revert to previous versions easily.
- Page hierarchy: Organize content logically with parent and child pages.
- Templates and blueprints: Save time with pre-defined layouts and structures.
- Macros: Add dynamic elements like calendars, polls, and custom code snippets.
Collaboration and Communication:
- Real-time editing: Work on pages simultaneously with other users and see changes instantly.
- Comments and mentions: Discuss ideas and provide feedback directly within the content.
- @mentions: Notify specific users about relevant information.
- Task management: Assign tasks and track progress within pages.
- Meeting notes: Capture and share meeting minutes effectively.
Knowledge Sharing and Search:
- Powerful search: Find information quickly and easily with advanced search filters.
- Labels and categories: Organize content for better discoverability.
- Spaces: Create dedicated workspaces for different teams or projects.
- Content permissions: Control who can access and edit content.
- Export and import: Share content with other platforms or applications.
Customization and Integrations:
- Themes and plugins: Extend Confluence functionality with a vast marketplace of add-ons.
- API access: Integrate Confluence with other tools and workflows.
- Customizable workflows: Automate tasks and processes with custom rules and triggers.
- Mobile apps: Access and contribute to Confluence content on the go.
- Strong security: Control access and protect sensitive information.
Pricing:
Plan | Users | Price (Monthly) | Price (Annually) |
---|---|---|---|
Small Team | 10 | $10 per user | $100 per user |
Standard Team | 25 | $12 per user | $120 per user |
Premium Team | 50 | $15 per user | $150 per user |
5. AllAnswered
AllAnswered is a term for an astounding all-in-one knowledge management system. With their assistance, all of your questions are answered. One system can include the power of a Q&A section, wiki, community, and process. What’s the best thing, then? All of them are available to you for a single, reasonable fee. In conclusion, their artificial intelligence allows you to develop fresh and updated content, exchange expertise, host questions and answers, and save a ton of time.
Knowledge Base Management:
- Create and edit wiki pages: Build rich content with text, images, videos, tables, and more.
- Version control: Track changes and revert to previous versions easily.
- Categorization and tagging: Organize content logically with categories, tags, and nested pages.
- Advanced search: Find information quickly and easily with powerful search filters.
- Content permissions: Control who can access and edit content.
Collaboration and Communication:
- Real-time editing: Work on pages simultaneously with other users and see changes instantly.
- Comments and mentions: Discuss ideas and provide feedback directly within the content.
- @mentions: Notify specific users about relevant information.
- Polls and Q&A: Gather feedback and answer questions from your team.
- News and announcements: Share important updates and information with your team.
Workflow and Analytics:
- Content approval workflow: Ensure accuracy and consistency of knowledge base content.
- Automation: Automate tasks like sending reminders and notifications.
- Analytics and reporting: Track usage patterns and measure the effectiveness of your knowledge base.
- Integrations: Connect AllAnswered with other tools and workflows.
- Customizable dashboards: Get a personalized view of your knowledge base activity.
Pricing:
Plan | Monthly Price (per user) | Annual Price (per user) | Users | Features |
---|---|---|---|---|
Starter | $6 | $60 | 1-10 | Basic features |
Pro | $12 | $120 | 11-50 | Advanced features |
Business | $20 | $200 | 51-100 | Premium features |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 100+ | Customized features and support |