XWiki vs BlueSpice

What is a wiki?

A wiki is traditionally defined as a collection of web pages that can be collaboratively edited by users with the appropriate permissions. Wikis enable the creation of content such as text, images, and videos, while also allowing users to establish links between related content. Wikis became widely known thanks to Wikipedia, the multilingual online encyclopedia launched in 2001, making it one of the most visited websites globally, with millions of articles. Beyond their traditional use, some wikis, such as the open-source platform XWiki, offer advanced features for collaboration, structured and unstructured data, and creation of web applications.

BlueSpice

BlueSpice is an enterprise-level wiki solution built on MediaWiki. The free, community version (BlueSpice Free) offers some basic features commonly used for knowledge management and collaboration, such as:

• Wikipedia visual editor for collaboration
• Subpages and categories for organizing content
• Drag & drop of files
• Export of files in various formats
• Search feature
• Simplified rights management
• Templates

Additionally, BlueSpice also has available 2 professional versions that bundle additional product features, extensions (around 100), support, and extra infrastructure resources when needed (BlueSpice Pro and BlueSpice Farm).

XWiki

XWiki differentiates itself from other wikis by catering to both SMBs and to enterprise-level organizations through:

• An impressive number of over 900 available free community extensions that enhance your wiki's functionality
• Many features in the native open-source software dedicated to knowledge management and collaboration which enhance productivity without the need for third-party plugins
• Office documents import (i.e a Word document is transformed into a wiki page; XWiki retains the layout, images contained in the document and also the documents attached to the page)
• The management of unstructured data (like Wikipedia), as well as structured data (forms, spreadsheets...)
• Export of the data in many formats (PDF, HTML, XAR...)
• Possibility to create web applications through App Within Minutes
• Advanced version control, dedicated edit history, and powerful search capabilities

Apart from these features, XWiki SAS also offers support on top of XWiki and a wide-range of business-oriented applications (called also Pro Applications) maintained at all times. The license and support for all the Pro Applications are included in any  Silver, Gold, or Platinum support plan, on premises or Cloud.

	XWiki	BlueSpice
Open Source	Yes	Yes
Deployment	On premises | Cloud	On premises | Cloud
OS	Any platform supporting JDK 1.8 or higher	Linux, Windows
License	LGPL v2.1	GPL v3
Programming language	Java	PHP, utilizing the MediaWiki framework
Costs scheme	Monthly payment | Annual Subscription | Quote-based	Annual payment | Quote-based
Features	USE CASES Wikis Confluence migration Documentation Helpdesk Intranet Knowledge base Organization manual Process management Integrated management system / Procedures Collaboration for teams ✅ Blog ✅ Content Management System ✅ Data Management System ✅ Digital Workplace ✅ Discussion boards ✅ Extranet ✅ Website	USE CASES Wikis Confluence migration Documentation Helpdesk Intranet Knowledge base Organization manual Process management Integrated management system / Procedures Collaboration for teams ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
	COLLABORATION Authentication Import/Export Sub-wikis Versioning Workflow Extension Forms Tags & Tag cloud Users & Groups management Comments User mention Blogs Task Manager Templates Visual Editor (rich text editor with CKEditor) Working with drafts & approvals Word Import Content transfer (with translation) Diagrams (draw.io, BPMN) Dynamic content elements (Videos, Lists, etc.) Advanced search engine Internationalization Page hierarchy via subpages Analytics application User profile Attachments Calendar Reminder & resubmission ✅ Annotations ✅ App Within Minutes ✅ Compare versions of a page ✅ Customizable navigation ✅ Dynamic Live Data ✅ File Manager ✅ Flash Messages (reminders) ✅ Forum ✅ Ideas Application ✅ Meeting Application ✅ Notes ✅ Notifications ✅ Polls ✅ Real-time WYSIWYG Editor ✅ Rollback ✅ User directory in the wiki ❌ Read confirmation ❌ Bookmaker	COLLABORATION Authentication Import/Export Sub-wikis Versioning Workflow feature Forms & Metadata — Semantic Category — Tags system Rights management Comments User mention Blogs Task feature Templates & Page template Visual editor Working with drafts & approvals Word import Content transfer (with translation) Diagrams (draw.io, BPMN) Dynamic content elements (Videos, Lists, etc.) Search engine Internationalization Page hierarchy via subpages Extended statistics extension User profile Attachments Calendar Reminder & resubmission ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ Read Confirmation Bookmaker
Programming capabilities	Advanced, using velocity, groovy and java using thousands of available APIs.	Basic, using Javascript
Supported Integrations	LDAP Microsoft Active Directory AWS SSO Azure AD Amazon Cognito Kerberos OpenID SAML Gitlab Google OAuth Keycloak Microsoft ADFS Microsoft EntraID NextCloud Okta Oracle Access Manager Ping Identity WSO2 Diagram AI integrations: DeepL through community extension, ChatGPT and Ollama are both available through XWiki AI-assistant (BETA) Google Apps integration Microsoft 365 Media Calendar Maps Elastic Search ✅ Atlassian JIRA ✅ ONLYOffice ✅ Kibana ✅ Azure ✅ Piwik ✅ Collabora Online ✅ Matomo ✅ Microsoft AD ✅ Swagger ❌ iFinder ❌ Easy Redmine You can implement various authentication methods in XWiki, as many already exist as community extensions.	LDAP Microsoft Active Directory AWS SSO Azure AD Amazon Cognito Kerberos OpenID SAML Gitlab Google OAuth Keycloak Microsoft ADFS Microsoft EntraID NextCloud Okta Oracle Access Manager Ping Identity WSO2 Diagram AI: ChatGPT, deepL, Ollama Google docs, forms, spreadsheets Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint Media: SoundCloud, Spotify, Twitch, Vimeo, YouTube Google Calendar Maps: Google Maps, OpenStreetMap OpenSearch ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ iFinder Easy Redmine
Customer Support	Phone | Email | Ticket	Phone | Email | Ticket
Training	Webinar Documentation Videos In person	Webinar Documentation Videos In person
Translations	in 42 languages with at least 62% translation rate	in 40 languages with at least 62% translation rate
AI-assistant	BETA	BETA

In terms of pricing

BlueSpice, built on top of MediaWiki, starts at €4.50 per user per month for hosting, but this base price excludes essential support services, which must be purchased separately at tiered hourly rates. Additionally, the minimum subscription requires 25 users, with an upfront setup fee of €375 on top of the annual €1,350 subscription cost. Expanding to multiple wikis incurs further costs, forcing businesses to upgrade to a 50 users tier minimally.In contrast, XWiki provides a more adaptable pricing structure that caters to SMBs and enterprises alike, offering the same pricing for cloud and on-premises deployments. XWiki, both the open-source project and the paid version, allow organizations to host multiple sub-wikis for free within a single instance, while BlueSpice charges extra for similar functionality and requires a minimum of 50 users for wiki farms.Lastly, while BlueSpice offers a free community edition, many of its more advanced features are only available in the paid editions. Organizations looking for comprehensive functionality without additional costs may find this limiting.When comparing the pricing models of BlueSpice and XWiki, it becomes clear that XWiki offers a more cost-effective and flexible solution for organizations of all sizes.

In terms of features and extensibility

In terms of features and functionalities, many of the advanced collaboration and organizational tools offered by BlueSpice are only available in their paid editions, such as BlueSpice 4 Pro and Wiki Farm. Features that come natively within the open-source XWiki platform require a yearly subscription in BlueSpice which means that XWiki brings greater value at no additional cost. Some of these native features that make XWiki a robust knowledge management and collaboration tool are:

• User mentions
• Realtime WYSIWYG collaborative feature
• Quick actions
• Rollback, versioning, page comparison
• Page creation forms
• Office file imports
• Automatic user page creation
• Page copying across wikis
• Article and subpage exports to PDF and Excel/CSV
• Reminders
• Embedded media players
• Programming features
• App Within Minutes for structured web applications

Additionally, in XWiki, through the Extension Manager, you can install and enhance your wiki functionally through any other application from the extension repository such as: Publication Workflow Application, Glossary Application, Unified Documents Application for manuals, Notes, LDAP authenticator, Ratings system, Diagrams, FAQ, Blog Application, Social Media share buttons, and many more! While XWiki remains fully free and open source, it encourages subscriptions to support services that fund ongoing improvements, benefiting all users.

In terms of Confluence migrations

When it comes to Confluence migrations, both BlueSpice and XWiki start with an XML export, but the tools, processes, and timelines differ significantly.

Migration process

BlueSpice relies on scripts to convert the export file into a BlueSpice-compatible format, which is then uploaded manually. This approach requires command-line knowledge and technical expertise, making it less accessible to non-technical users. Additionally, BlueSpice lacks a user-friendly interface, demanding a high level of manual intervention throughout the migration.In contrast, XWiki provides a streamlined approach with its Confluence Migration Toolkit. The Confluence Migrator (Pro) allows users to directly import their Confluence backup package and manage multiple spaces at a time. This includes importing users, permissions, and blog posts — features that BlueSpice does not support at the moment. Moreover, XWiki offers a detailed report for each migration, enabling users to adjust pages affected by import issues as needed. The entire process is more efficient, transparent, and can be performed even by non-technical users with minimal effort.

Capabilities

Beyond the migration process, the capabilities of both platforms differ significantly. BlueSpice supports a limited range of Confluence macros and requires manual adjustments for user identities, permissions, and groups. It does not support critical features such as blog post imports, history retention, or detailed page layouts. Although it provides an open-source migration tool available on GitHub under a GPLv3 license, the need for manual intervention remains a drawback.On the other hand, XWiki covers a much broader range of Confluence macros, including blog post imports, history retention, comments, authors, tags, and multi-column page layouts. XWiki's capability to fully import user identities, permissions, and groups makes it a more comprehensive and easy to use solution, regardless if you do the migration on your own or with the help of our experienced team. With ongoing documentation updates, XWiki supports around 60 macros, ensuring a smoother transition from Confluence.Lastly, the Confluence Migration Toolkit offers users a complete bundle which contains:

• Confluence Migrator (Pro) for a seamless migration;
• Confluence specific bridge macros for migration and long-term usage in XWiki;
• Task Manager (Pro) and Blog Application that will ensure you and your team keep up your daily productivity immediately after the migration;
• Long-term technical support on the core product, Pro Apps, recommended extensions, and community extensions.

Why choose XWiki?

While BlueSpice catters to organizations of all sizes only through its paid subscriptions, XWiki goes a few steps forward and offers natively a wide variety of features, advanced programming options, and possibility to organize structured and unstructured data. Additionally, XWiki fits your organization if you need:

• Comprehensive rights management by default. XWiki includes advanced rights management features at no additional cost, whereas BlueSpice requires extra payment for similar functionality.
• Free publication workflow extension. XWiki provides a publication workflow extension that can be tailored to the user's needs, while BlueSpice charges separately for drafts, approvals, and workflow applications.
• Extensive ecosystem of extensions. With over 900 readily available extensions, XWiki allows organizations to easily expand their functionality without incurring extra costs, unlike BlueSpice which offers limited options.
• Scalability and adaptability. XWiki's flexibility ensures it can meet the needs of small teams and large enterprises alike, offering a solution that grows with the organization and is fair value/cost wise.
• Constant innovation. The XWiki community continuously drives innovation and improvement through its yearly roadmap, monthly releases, ongoing feature enhancements, performance optimizations, accessibility upgrades, and consistent bug fixes, ensuring a dynamic and evolving platform.

While both BlueSpice and XWiki enhance collaboration through wikis, XWiki stands out with its extensive native features, stronger customization options, and cost-effectiveness. Its ease of migration from Confluence further gives it an edge, making it an ideal choice for organizations seeking a flexible, robust, and budget-friendly one-stop-shop solution.