Host DokuWiki without installing anything
A wiki that keeps everything in text files: no database to back up, repair or migrate, and documentation still readable in ten years.
Starting at €4.99/month
Introduction
DokuWiki installed, updated and backed up by us, on a machine in France. A wiki with no database, storing everything in text files. Extremely sturdy and easy to back up: ideal for documentation that has to last. You install nothing and configure no server: the application is online a few minutes after you order, under your own name.
The plan that suits it is App Essentiel at €4.99/month incl. VAT — 2 GB of memory, against a theoretical minimum of 512 MB. DokuWiki is frugal by nature, since there is no database server to keep alive alongside it. Memory goes to the PHP processes and, above all, to rebuilding the search index: that is the only moment when a wiki of several thousand pages seriously asks anything of the machine.
Moving in and moving out are unusually simple: everything fits in one folder. Pages are .txt files filed by namespace, old revisions are archived compressed next to them, images and attachments sit in a neighbouring folder. Backing up means copying that folder; moving house means copying it somewhere else. No export, no database restore, no surprise on the day you actually need it.
What managed hosting changes
No database, and that is the point
Every page is a text file in a tree of folders. Nothing to dump, nothing to restore, nothing to migrate from one major database version to the next — and, extreme but real, your text stays readable in a plain editor even if the wiki itself went away.
Every version is kept
Each save archives the previous version. You compare two revisions line by line in the browser, restore the earlier one, and the recent-changes page says who changed what, with the option to subscribe by email to a whole namespace.
Permissions per namespace
Permissions are set namespace by namespace, down to the page: a public section open to read, an internal section restricted, a third where only two people may write. Accounts live in a file, or in your LDAP or Active Directory through an extension.
An extension manager in the admin panel
Hundreds of extensions install from the interface: advanced tables, task lists, diagrams, PDF export, Markdown syntax, directory login, a visual editor. The wiki stays light, and you only add what you actually use.
Why hand it over rather than install it
Technical documentation built to last
Operating procedures, wiring diagrams, working instructions: the kind of text that will be reread in eight years. The file format guarantees it will still open, whatever state the software is in by then.
A small local authority or public service
A public namespace for practical information, an internal one for procedures and contacts. One wiki, two permission regimes, and no database server to have audited.
A department that must know who changed what
Every edit is dated and attributed, every earlier version stays readable. The question "who deleted this paragraph and when" has an answer in three clicks.
Someone who wants backups they understand
No dump command to write, no restore to rehearse: the content is a folder. That is the kind of simplicity you appreciate mostly on the day things go wrong.
An association with no system administrator
Nothing to watch on the database side, very little to configure, and a syntax learned in one meeting. The wiki outlives changes of committee because it asks nothing of anyone.
Documentation hosted in France
The instance runs in our own datacentre in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and the automatic backup kept for 14 days restores from the client area.
Frequently asked questions
For sturdiness and for the emergency exit. Backing up DokuWiki means copying a folder; restoring it means copying it back. There is no dump to schedule, no schema migration on a major upgrade, no table corrupting on a Sunday night. And if one day the software were no longer maintained, your pages would still be perfectly readable text files. The downside is real: beyond several tens of thousands of pages, full-text search and indexing are slower than in a database-backed wiki. For a team's, a department's or an association's documentation, you are nowhere near that limit.
No, DokuWiki has its own syntax, older than Markdown: headings use equals signs, bold uses double asterisks, links use double brackets. It is close but different, and the editor toolbar makes it a half-hour to learn. If your team insists on Markdown, an extension adds that syntax and another provides a visual editor. Just know it is not the out-of-the-box behaviour.
By namespace, which matches the folders of the tree. You can open one namespace to everyone including anonymous visitors, restrict another to a group, and allow writing on a third to only two people. Accounts are stored in a file by default; an extension lets you lean on an existing LDAP or Active Directory rather than recreating users.
Nothing. You choose the application, fill in the two or three fields it asks for, and it goes online; the address and credentials arrive by email. The recommended plan for DokuWiki is App Essentiel, at €4.99/month incl. VAT with 2 GB of memory, and it can be changed later without reinstalling.
Yes, they are part of the service. A self-hosted application left un-updated is a security risk, not a saving. Version upgrades are applied and checked by us, with a backup kept for 14 days so you can roll back from the client area.