Websites using MoinMoin

Okay, let s break down MoinMoin, including an overview, revenue (since this is tricky!), alternatives, pricing, and customer care details.

MoinMoin: Overview

MoinMoin is a free and open-source wiki engine written in Python. It s known for its simplicity, flexibility, and ease of deployment. It s designed to be a powerful and customizable wiki platform suitable for various purposes, including:

• Collaboration: Teams can use it to create shared knowledge bases, documentation, and project workspaces.
• Note-Taking: Individuals can use it for personal knowledge management and organization.
• Documentation: Creating software documentation, product manuals, or internal procedures.
• Website Content Management: While not its primary focus, it can be adapted for basic website content management.

Key Features:

• Wiki Syntax: Uses a simple, lightweight markup language (wiki markup) for easy content creation and formatting. MoinMoin has its own wiki syntax.
• Revision Control: Tracks changes to pages, allowing users to revert to previous versions.
• Access Control: Allows administrators to control who can view, edit, or administer the wiki.
• Extensibility: Plugins and extensions can add new features and functionality.
• Search: Built-in search capabilities to find content within the wiki.
• Templates: Supports templates for creating consistent page layouts.
• Python-based: Written in Python, making it relatively easy for developers with Python skills to customize and extend.
• Self-contained: It s a reasonably small, self-contained program. You don t need a full-blown database server.

Revenue (or Lack Thereof):

MoinMoin is free and open-source software. This means:

• No direct revenue stream: The core software is available for free download and use. There are no license fees.
• Potential indirect revenue: There are a few ways the project might get very limited income:
  • Donations: Open-source projects often rely on donations from users and organizations that find the software valuable. However, MoinMoin isn t known for having a highly active donation system.
  • Consulting/Support: Individuals or companies might offer paid consulting or support services for MoinMoin. This is not officially managed or promoted by the MoinMoin project itself.
  • Hosting: Some hosting providers might offer MoinMoin as a pre-installed option or provide specialized hosting services. Again, this wouldn t directly benefit the core MoinMoin project financially.

Important: Don t expect any substantial revenue figures. The primary motivation is community contribution and the provision of a valuable open-source tool.

Alternatives to MoinMoin:

Here are some popular wiki alternatives, categorized by their characteristics:

• Open Source & Self-Hosted:

  • MediaWiki: The engine behind Wikipedia. Very powerful and feature-rich, but more complex to set up.
  • DokuWiki: Simple, lightweight, and uses plain text files for storage (no database required by default). Good for smaller wikis.
  • XWiki: A Java-based wiki platform with enterprise features like fine-grained access control, scripting, and applications.
  • BookStack: Focuses on documentation management, with a clean interface and organization features (books, chapters, pages).
  • Wiki.js: Modern, Node.js based, and uses Markdown.

• Cloud-Based (SaaS):

  • Confluence (Atlassian): Popular for team collaboration, especially in software development environments. (Paid)
  • Notion: A versatile workspace tool that combines wikis, databases, and project management features. (Freemium)
  • Google Sites: Simple and easy to use, especially if you re already in the Google ecosystem. (Free with Google account)
  • Microsoft Wiki (SharePoint): If you re already using Microsoft 365, SharePoint provides wiki functionality. (Paid, part of Microsoft 365)

Choosing an Alternative:

The best alternative depends on your specific needs:

• Ease of Use: DokuWiki, Google Sites, and Notion are generally easier to learn.
• Features: MediaWiki and XWiki are more feature-rich. Confluence offers collaboration features tightly integrated with other Atlassian products.
• Technical Expertise: MoinMoin and DokuWiki are fairly easy to set up, but if you need advanced features or scalability, MediaWiki or XWiki may be better choices (but require more technical skills).
• Cost: Open-source solutions are free, but require you to provide your own hosting. Cloud-based solutions typically have subscription fees.
• Collaboration needs Confluence, Notion and Google Sites are better if you need real-time collaboration and document sharing.

Pricing:

• MoinMoin: Free (as in beer and speech). You pay for hosting if you host it yourself.
• Alternatives: Refer to the specific pricing pages for each alternative (Confluence, Notion, etc.). Open source alternatives require you to pay for your own hosting.

Customer Care/Support:

Since MoinMoin is a community-driven open-source project, formal customer care as you d expect from a commercial company is not available. Support primarily comes from:

• MoinMoin Wiki: The official MoinMoin website (moinmo.in) is the primary resource. It contains documentation, FAQs, and user guides.
• Community Forums/Mailing Lists: Check the MoinMoin website for links to any community forums or mailing lists where you can ask questions and get help from other users. (Note: Activity levels on these forums may vary.)
• IRC Channels: Some open-source projects have IRC channels for real-time discussions. See if MoinMoin has one listed on its website.
• Third-Party Consultants: You might be able to find independent consultants who offer MoinMoin support for a fee, but this is not an official MoinMoin service.
• Self-Help: Because it s open-source, you can often find solutions to problems by searching online forums, documentation, and other resources.

Key Takeaway: Support for MoinMoin relies heavily on community involvement and self-help. If you require guaranteed, professional support, you might be better off with a commercial wiki platform like Confluence.

In summary, MoinMoin is a solid, lightweight wiki engine that s great for simple, self-hosted wikis. Just be aware that it s not actively developed and that support comes from the community, and that it has no revenue stream and relys on the goodwill of the community.