Best Wiki Apps for Microsoft Teams in 2021

In this post, I’ll review some apps that can help both teams and individuals create and manage knowledge bases without leaving Microsoft Teams. By the end of this post, you will have all of the information necessary to make a decision and select the best wiki app for your team.

Wiki apps are workspaces that allow you to store, create, and share your company’s resources. Usually the content is stored on “pages” - this helps you separate your knowledge by topic, department, or project.

Apps I will be reviewing:

1. Perfect Wiki
2. Microsoft OneNote
3. Tettra
4. Atlassian Confluence
5. IntelliWiki

I tried to cover all of the available solutions. efault wiki is not a great solution for most scenarios, which is why it’s not included in the list.

Think there’s a great wiki app missing from the list? Let me know in the chat window below.

The criteria I used to review these wiki apps

I wanted to make this review objective and useful for a diversity of readers. That’s why I decided to test each solution myself.So for sample data, I created several wiki pages describing fictional teammates. I stored the sample data in Microsoft Word. Each file represents a wiki page.

For each tested wiki app I tried to answer the following questions:

1. How easy is it to install? Some solutions you can install with one click while others require several steps to complete installation
2. How easy is it to import your data? It is always hard to start from scratch. If the wiki solution allows you to import all of your data, this will make your life much easier.
3. How easy is it to export your data? What if you decide to switch to another wiki solution, how easily you can migrate your data? Is it even possible? Or is your data locked in place?
4. How easy is it to find a specific page? A good full-text search is key for the wiki solution to store and share knowledge.
5. Does it have a mobile version? Modern teams need to have access to the wiki solution from any device. A mobile version is required.
6. Can we lock the wiki content from being edited? Wiki solutions that can be edited by everyone quickly become useless. While other solutions allow you to set up individual user permissions.
7. Where is the data stored? Only one solution in the review stores your data in your Sharepoint folder. The world is moving to cloud solutions. But how exactly is your data stored in the cloud? Is it encrypted? I tried to find answers to all of these questions on the official sites of the apps.
8. What about the price? I briefly reviewed the price table for each solution and calculated the approximate price for a small team of 10 users in which only 2 or 3 users will manage the wiki data.
9. Summary At the end of each review, I will share my own opinion and a few interesting facts/features of the solution.

Let’s begin!

1. Perfect Wiki

Let me introduce you to Perfect Wiki. I designed this app when I realized there were no good wiki apps developed specifically for Microsoft Teams. Perfect Wiki is a simple but powerful solution, with a limited number of carefully crafted features.

Perfect Wiki is simple and intuitive in every way, much unlike the feature-heavy and often clunky knowledge management tools such as Confluence.

How easy is it to install?

Installation is done in one click. Just add a new tab with PerfectWiki to the desired channel in your team and you're done.

How easy is it to import your data?

You have several options to import your data into Perfect Wiki.

First, you can import data from your existing Microsoft Word or HTML documents, which is very useful if you’re migrating from another wiki software like WIKI Plus (which was a popular solution for SharePoint back in the day).

The second option is to import your data right from the MS Teams built-in wiki, a process described in detail in this blog post: "Two options to export your content from Microsoft Teams built-in Wiki".

Lastly, the Perfect Wiki editor supports copy-and-paste from Microsoft Office apps and Google Docs. And of course, it preserves formatting.

How easy is it to export your data?

You can get an archive with your data at any point in time, even if your subscription has expired. The data will be in HTML (Web page) format.

Also, you can export any page in PDF format on demand or get a link to the HTML version of the page for someone outside Microsoft Teams.

How easy is it to find a specific page?

Perfect Wiki has a “Quick Find” feature that performs a typo-tolerant full-text search on all pages within the team. This search is done using both the content and titles of the pages. The results are highlighted.

Perfect Wiki also has a page search that allows you to quickly locate the exact position of the text.

Does it have a mobile version?

Yes! In fact, the mobile version of Perfect Wiki lets you create and edit pages right from your phone inside your Microsoft Teams app. It’s the perfect solution for all those busybodies out there who are constantly on the go.

Can we lock wiki content from being edited?

Yep, with PerfectWiki you can set up custom user permissions. For each team, you can specify a list of editors who can add/edit content. All other users will automatically have read-only access.

Where is the data stored?

Your data is stored on Perfect Wiki servers

”All user content is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2+ with perfect forward secrecy. Servers holding user data will use full disk, industry-standard AES 256 encryption.

All user data stored in Perfect Wiki is protected under our obligations in the Terms of Service.”

Get more security details here.

What about the price?

Perfect Wiki offers a 14 days free trial plan with unlimited users and pages.

Paid subscription price starts from USD 79 per month for 3 users.

See more pricing details here.

Summary

PerfectWiki has a lot of other features that are worth mentioning.

Build a hierarchy of pages with subpages and move and order them as you like.

Suggest edits to the page right from the Microsoft Teams interface.

Perfect Wiki automatically generates a table of contents for your wiki pages.

Perfect Wiki has a built-in version control system. You can browse through the page revision history and restore earlier versions.

Last but not least, Perfect Wiki has a sophisticated editor that supports code highlighting, markdown syntax, to-do lists, page mentions, and much more.

Here’s a quote from one of our customers:

“Very happy about how it works and how easily we can now avoid people from unintentionally edit wikis, and also keep information much more prominent and easy to search/find. This is a really good addition to MSFT Teams for Wikis, something quite incredible MSFT did not do themselves but thankfully someone did.”

2. Microsoft OneNote

Back in the days when Microsoft Teams was not so popular, the only good alternative to the default wiki was Microsoft OneNote. Every Microsoft MVP was suggesting to use OneNote instead of the default wiki. That’s why I decided to include it in this review.

How easy is it to install?

It’s a Microsoft product so it’s pre-bundled into Microsoft Teams. You can install it in one click. After the installation is done you need to create a new notebook for the team. Microsoft OneNote has a single sign-on with your Microsoft Account, so you don’t need to worry about separate accounts for all of your teammates.

How easy is it to import your data?

Unfortunately, you can’t import your data from the default wiki or other files. The only way to get your data into OneNote is to copy and paste it. Luckily, it preserves the formatting.

How easy is it to export your data?

You have only one option to get your data back. Use the Print menu option. There is no way to export all of your data at once into any commonly used open format.

How easy is it to find a specific page?

Pretty easy! You can search through all the pages in a given section or search through a single page. The search results are highlighted.

Does it have a mobile version?

Yes, it has a mobile version. By default, it tries to open a OneNote mobile app, but you can also force it to open a notebook in a web browser. As you can see in the screenshot below, the mobile version doesn’t have proper scaling.

Can we lock wiki content from being edited?

Nope, you can’t lock the OneNote notebook from being edited, nor can you set the access rights for specific users. Currently, it’s one of the most significant issues in OneNote. Otherwise, it could be the perfect solution for small teams.

Where is the data stored?

Data is stored in your Office 365 account. You can find the OneNote notebook file under the “Files” tab for your team, but you can’t download it.

What about the price?

One Note is included in your Office365 subscription, so it’s free to use.

Summary

If you’re managing a small team and you’re looking for a good free knowledge base solution, then OneNote could be a good fit—or at least it’s an app that you should try before reviewing all other paid solutions.

To me, the OneNote editor seemed a bit clumsy. You will not find any sophisticated wiki features like mentions, versioning, templates, etc. I think OneNote is doing a good job at being a notebook for personal data, but it’s not a solid wiki app.

3. Tettra

Tettra is a well-known leader in the Slack community. Recently Tettra developed Microsoft Teams integration, so I decided to give it a try.

How easy is it to install?

You can install it from the Microsoft Teams App Store. But when you try to log in, it’ll ask you for the API keys which aren't available in the free plan. That's why I can't do a full review of Tettra. ;(

What about the price?

Tettra has a free plan, but you can’t use it with Microsoft Teams. So pricing for a small team of 10 users will cost you $99/mo. For more details, check out their pricing page: https://tettra.com/pricing/

Summary

It seems like Tettra didn’t pay a lot of attention to Microsoft Teams users. They have a free version for Slack, but their integration with Microsoft Teams is available only on paid plans.

Nevertheless, I gave the web version of Tettra a try and found more drawbacks for Microsoft Teams users.

First of all, you’ll need to have separate Tettra accounts to access the Tettra web interface, because you can’t sign on with a Microsoft Account (email, Google, or Slack are the only available options).

Secondly, Tettra’s integration with Microsoft Teams doesn’t allow you to edit wiki content, you can only search through wiki pages or ask the Tettra bot questions.

As of now, Tettra is not a feasible option for new users. If you already have a paid Tettra account and you’re migrating from Slack to Microsoft Teams, then you can give it a try.

4. Atlassian Confluence

For a long time Confluence was the default wiki app for large enterprise companies. It has a ton of features.

Recently Atlassian released a Microsoft Teams integration for Confluence Cloud. Atlassian positions Confluence as a separate product with its own ecosystem and plugins, so we shouldn’t expect that Microsoft Teams is a top priority for Atlassian. Nevertheless, let’s review it.

How easy is it to install?

Frankly, the installation process is complicated. First of all, you need to sign up for Atlassian Confluence and install the “Microsoft Teams for Confluence Cloud'' plugin. After that, you need to install “Confluence Cloud” into Microsoft Teams and answer a few questions about your Confluence account. When the installation process is complete, you can add the Confluence tab to any channel.

How easy is it to import your data?

You can import your data from your device in Word format or copy and paste it from Microsoft Word, and formatting will be preserved. You can’t import documents in bulk, nor can you import data from the MS Teams built-in wiki. If you start from scratch you can use their impressive, high-quality collection of predefined templates.

One large drawback is that Confluence doesn’t have proper integration with Microsoft Teams. You can’t import or add your data right from Microsoft Teams. The only option is to use its web interface from the browser.

After you’ve imported your data via the web interface, you can add a tab with the content of the page to any Microsoft Teams channel.

How easy is it to export your data?

You can print or export any page to a .docx or PDF format, andyou can export all pages at once. There is no vendor lock. But again, none of these actions can be done right from the Microsoft Teams interface.

How easy is it to find a specific page?

Integration of Confluence with Microsoft Teams has a very limited search functionality. You can use the search dialog from the button below the message box, but it won’t search through the page content, nor will it highlight the search results. Surprisingly, it finds a document when I type “Bill Gate” (w/o “s”) and doesn't find anything when I type “Bill Gates”.

Even if you find the desired page, it’ll be opened in the browser window and not in the Microsoft Teams interface.

Does it have a mobile version?

Yes, you can open a page on a mobile device right from the Microsoft Teams mobile app. The mobile version of the Confluence wiki page is read-only. If you want to edit your wiki pages you need to install their mobile app or open the Confluence web app on a desktop. Furthermore, on mobile, you can’t switch between wiki pages, you can open only one page pinned to the Microsoft Teams tab. Sadly scaling is not available.

Can we lock wiki content from being edited?

All wiki pages appear in Microsoft Teams as read-only. To edit a page you need to go to the Confluence web interface via a desktop browser.

Where is the data stored?

Quote from Atlassian Confluence official website:

What about the price?

It appears you can get most of the needed features for free for a small team of up to 10 users. The next plan is $5/month per user. Full pricing details are available on the official site.

Summary

To summarize, if you are ok with having separate logins for all of your teammates to Atlassian Confluence and you don’t need proper integration with Microsoft Teams, then you should try it. Otherwise, I would not recommend it.

5. IntelliWiki

IntelliWiki is a newer solution. It appeared on the Microsoft Teams marketplace only about 3 months ago (~ Sep 2020). Based on the information from the official site, the main goal of the app is to provide users with outstanding collaborative editing features.

How easy is it to install?

IntelliWiki can be installed from the Microsoft Teams marketplace in one click. But after you add the IntelliWiki tab to your team or channel and launch it for the first time, the app will ask you to grant permissions several times.

First, it’ll ask to access your basic profile data. Then, it’ll ask you to grant administrative access so it can read your team data. Lastly, it’ll ask you to grant access to Microsoft Graph if you decide to use mentions. Frankly, it’s a bit boring. Also, every user of IntelliWIki should grant access, otherwise, it won’t work.

How easy is it to import your data?

You can import your data from the Microsoft Teams built-in wiki—it’s really cool. Unfortunately, you can’t do that on the free plan.. Another option to bring your data in is to copy and paste it. Formatting is only partially preserved. For example, it misses headings when I paste from Microsoft Word. Sadly, there is no way to import your data from Microsoft Word files.

How easy is it to export your data?

I didn’t find a way to export or print data from this app. It seems like your data is locked.

How easy is it to find a specific page?

Intelliwiki has a full-text search. It works as expected but search results aren’t highlighted. Also, you can’t do an on-page search.

Does it have a mobile version?

Nope, there is no mobile version.

Can we lock wiki content from being edited?

Yes, but you can’t specify permissions for each user. You can lock page content for everyone except yourself, or you can allow everyone to edit everything, those are your only two options.

Where is the data stored?

The data is stored somewhere in the Microsoft Azure SQL database and is encrypted in transit and at rest. No other details are provided.

What about the price?

IntelliWiki has a very limited free version. For example, you can have only 1 wiki per team and only 2 pages per wiki. This is not enough for any team, it’s not even enough for testing purposes. The paid plan starts at $2/month per user. So, if you have a team of 10 users, you will pay $20/mo. For more pricing information check out the official site: https://intellitect.com/intellitect-products/intelliwiki/.

Summary

At first glance, IntelliWiki looks promising. It has sophisticated features like mentions, versions history, trash bin, and full-text search. After all, IntelliWiki is nicely integrated into Microsoft Teams.

But when you start to use the app, you will find that it’s very raw. For example, I got several crashes in 30 minutes of testing and very long loadings. It’s also not clear how to get data back from IntelliWiki.

A few other quirks I found:

• read-only users can’t navigate through pages but can modify access rights
• you can't use IntelliWiki in private channels

To summarize, IntelliWiki has the potential to be a good solution for some teams, but let’s give it a year or so until it becomes more mature.

Which wiki app is best for you?

It’s up to you which knowledge management app is the best fit for your company. In this review, I analyzed the pros and cons of each popular wiki solution available for Microsoft Teams.

I hope you found this post useful. Help your colleagues and teammates select the best wiki app for their team by sharing this post.

Still not sure which app to go with? Try Perfect Wiki for FREE, no commitments, no credit card or sign-in required. Who knows, our unlimited user policy and full MS Teams integration might just win you over. ;)