A wiki hosting service, or wiki farm, is a
server or an
array of servers that offers users tools to simplify the creation and development of individual, independent
wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
s.
Prior to wiki farms, someone who wanted to operate a wiki had to install the software and manage the server(s) themselves. With a wiki farm, the farm's administration installs the core wiki code once on its own servers, centrally maintains the servers, and establishes unique space on the servers for the content of each individual wiki with the shared core code executing the functions of each wiki.
Both commercial and non-commercial wiki farms are available for users and online communities. While most of the wiki farms allow anyone to open their own wiki, some impose restrictions. Many wiki farm companies generate revenue through the insertion of advertisements, but often allow payment of a monthly fee as an alternative to accepting ads.
Fandom, created by
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known as Jimbo Wales, is an American List of Internet entrepreneurs, Internet entrepreneur and former Trader (finance), financial trader. He is a Founders of Wikipedia, co-founder of the non-profi ...
and
Angela Beesley Starling in 2004 and formerly known as Wikia, is a well-known example of a wiki-hosting service.
Comparison of wiki hosting services
This comparison of wiki hosting services or wiki farms is not comprehensive, it details only those '
notable' enough (in Wikipedia terms) to be included. A useful comprehensive comparison of wiki farms can be found on
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is free and open-source wiki software originally developed by Magnus Manske for use on Wikipedia on January 25, 2002, and further improved by Lee Daniel Crocker,mailarchive:wikipedia-l/2001-August/000382.html, Magnus Manske's announc ...
's site, at
mw:Hosting services.
Online services which host
wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
-style editable
web page
A web page (or webpage) is a World Wide Web, Web document that is accessed in a web browser. A website typically consists of many web pages hyperlink, linked together under a common domain name. The term "web page" is therefore a metaphor of pap ...
s. General characteristics of cost, presence of advertising, licensing are compared, as are technical differences in editing, features, wiki engine, multilingual support and syntax support.
This table compares general information for several of the more than 100 wiki hosting services that exist.
["WikiMatrix - Compare them all" (selectable table),
WikiMatrix, 2007, webpage]
wikimatrix-org-main
.
All the mentioned services have
WYSIWYG editing.
Deprecated wiki hosts
This section is for hosts that were previously in the list above but no longer available:
*
Wikispaces
Notes
References
External links
Computers/Software/Groupware/Wiki/Wiki Farms at
Curlie
Wikimatrix, with interactive selection of wikifarms based on user preference now only available through the
Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiki Farms
Web hosting