Zim
Graphical text editor used to maintain a collection of wiki pages. Each page can contain links to other pages, simple formatting and images.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 46 commits in the last 90 days.
Comparisons in Wikis: Confluence alternatives.
At a glance
Zim quick facts
- Health score
- 58/100 SLOWING
- Stars
- 2,207
- Last commit
- 6 days ago (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- No tagged release
- Licence
- GPL-2.0
Top alternatives to Zim
In its own words
The project's README opens: "Zim is a graphical text editor used to maintain a collection of wiki pages. Each page can contain links to other pages, simple formatting, and images. Pages are stored in a folder structure, like in an outliner, and can have attachments. Creating a new page is as easy as linking to a nonexistent page. All data is stored in plain text files with wiki formatting."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
Zim scores 58/100, #16 of 24 in Wikis: 46 commits in the last 90 days earn 35.0 of 35 points, the absence of a tagged release forfeits all 25 release points, 2,207 stars add 13.4 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and no advertised Docker image leaves the final 10 unclaimed. That places it in the slowing band (40 to 69). The biggest shortfall is release recency, worth 25.0 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity 35.0 / 35
46 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency biggest shortfall 0.0 / 25
No tagged release found
- Stars 13.4 / 20
2.2k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 0.0 / 10
No Docker support advertised
Commit activity
- 46
- Last 90 days
- 177
- Last 12 months
- 6 days ago
- Last push
Ranked #16 of 24 tools in Wikis by health , between django-wiki (#15) and Tiki (#17) .
Details
| Licence | GPL-2.0 |
| Platforms | Python, deb |
| Latest release | No tagged release |
| Stars | 2,207 |
| Open issues | 415 |
| Docker | Not advertised |
| Repository | zim-desktop-wiki/zim-desktop-wiki ↗ |
Zim vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a category with Zim (Wikis), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outline | 98 | 41k | BUSL-1.1 | today |
| Wiki.js | 98 | 29k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
| docmost Community Edition | 97 | 22k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
| W | 77 | 57 | AGPL-3.0 | 4 days ago |
| Zim (this tool) | 58 | 2.2k | GPL-2.0 | 6 days ago |
| Gitit | 37 | 2.3k | GPL-2.0 | 5 days ago |
Zim: common questions
Is Zim still maintained?
Zim had 46 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was 6 days ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.