A private wiki is a wiki only invited people can open: your team writes and links pages together, and you decide who can read and who can edit each part. It works like a company encyclopedia that the outside world can't see.
Teams use private wikis for knowledge that shouldn't be public but needs to be easy to find inside the company:
- FAQs: answers to common questions, so support and IT reply the same way every time.
- Tutorials and how-tos: step-by-step instructions that help new people learn the job.
- SOPs: standard operating procedures, such as HR's onboarding and offboarding steps.
- Policies and sensitive documents: pricing rules, security guidelines and internal contacts that only some people should see or change.
If these live in scattered files and chat threads today, a private wiki gives them one secure, searchable home.
Private wiki vs public wiki vs shared drive
A private wiki sits between a public wiki and a shared drive: it's as easy to browse as a website, but as controlled as a locked folder.
| Private wiki | Public wiki | Shared drive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can read | Only invited people | Anyone on the internet | Only invited people |
| Content | Linked, searchable pages | Linked, searchable pages | Separate files and folders |
| Editing | Chosen editors, per section or page | Often anyone with an account | Whoever has the file open |
| Finding answers | Search across all pages, often AI answers | Search across all pages | Search by file name or open each file |
| Best for | Company knowledge, SOPs, policies, FAQs | Public documentation, open communities | Storing and sharing files |
How to create a private wiki, step by step
You can have a working private wiki in an afternoon. These steps apply to any tool; the Microsoft Teams walkthrough further down shows them in practice.
- Decide who it's for. One team, several departments, or the whole company? This decides how many knowledge bases or sections you need. For a company-wide wiki, see our guide on how to build an internal wiki.
- Choose where to host it. A SaaS wiki, a self-hosted wiki, or a wiki inside the chat tool your team already uses (compared below).
- Plan the structure. Create a section per department or topic, such as HR, IT, Sales, Policies and FAQ. Keep it shallow so any page is two or three clicks away.
- Set who can see what. Restrict sensitive sections, such as HR or finance, to the people who need them. Everything else can be open to the whole company.
- Set who can edit what. Give each section a small group of editors, and lock pages that must not change, such as policies.
- Add your first content. Start with the 10–20 questions people ask most. Import existing documents that are still accurate, use templates for the rest, or let AI draft a first version.
- Invite your team and keep it current. Share the wiki where people work, assign page owners, and review key pages regularly.
Access control: what to plan before you start
Good access control in a private wiki works on two levels: who can see a whole knowledge base, and who can edit each page. Plan both before you invite anyone, so you don't have to untangle permissions later.
| Level | Question to answer | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Viewing, per knowledge base | Who should see this section at all? | An Admins-only knowledge base for IT credentials and procedures |
| Editing, per knowledge base | Who can change pages in this section? | HR edits onboarding docs; Sales edits only the Sales section |
| Editing, per page | Which pages must stay locked? | A pricing policy that's view-only for everyone except two admins |
Three roles cover most teams: admins manage settings and access, editors write and update content, and readers view, search and ask questions. Keep the editor group small: the more people can change a page, the faster it drifts out of date.
Read-only doesn't have to mean passive. In a well-designed wiki, readers can still search, ask an AI assistant, leave comments for editors and share links.
Where to host a private wiki: your three options
For most teams, a SaaS wiki inside the tool they already use is the fastest and cheapest option; self-hosting only pays off if you need full control and have an engineer to run it.
| Option | Examples | Setup | Upkeep | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS wiki | Perfect Wiki, Confluence, Notion | Sign up, pick a template, start writing | Handled by the vendor | Teams that want a wiki running today |
| Self-hosted wiki | MediaWiki, DokuWiki | Install on your own server | A capable server and an engineer to maintain, update and back it up | Companies that must keep everything on their own infrastructure |
| Wiki inside your chat tool | Perfect Wiki in Microsoft Teams or Slack | Add an app, sign in with your work account | Handled by the vendor | Teams that live in Microsoft Teams or Slack all day |
How to set up a private wiki in Microsoft Teams with access control
With Perfect Wiki, you can set up a private wiki with full access control inside Microsoft Teams in about 10 minutes. Everyone signs in with their Microsoft account, so there are no new logins or external links.
Step 1: Add Perfect Wiki to a Teams channel
- Open the Microsoft Teams channel where the wiki should live.
- Click + (Add a tab), search for Perfect Wiki and click Add.
- Create or import content: start from a blank page, a template or AI generation, or import HTML, ZIP, Word, PowerPoint, CSV or PDF files.
Step 2: Set who can see and edit each knowledge base
Viewing: restrict a knowledge base to a group, such as Admins only, or to a custom access list. You can also make one public for customers.
Editing: let all admins and editors collaborate, or limit editing to a chosen group. HR can control onboarding docs while Sales edits only its own section.
Step 3: Lock individual pages
For a sensitive page, such as a pricing policy or an SOP that must stay version-controlled, open … > Lock Page Edit and choose:
- Only Admins
- Admins & Editors
- Custom Access List, for example a single subject expert who owns the page
- Inherit from Base Settings
Each page follows its own setting, which protects it from accidental or unauthorized changes.
What readers can still do
People with view-only access can still search the wiki, ask the AI chatbot questions, leave comments for editors, export pages, create lists of favorite articles and share private links inside Teams.
Version history and analytics
Every change is saved, and any page can be rolled back in one click.
Admins can also see page activity and searches in Analytics to check that the setup works.
Start your private wiki today
A private wiki gives your team one secure place for FAQs, SOPs and policies, with clear rules on who sees and edits what. Plan your sections and permissions first, start with the questions people ask most, and host it where your team already works.
If your team uses Microsoft Teams or Slack, Perfect Wiki gives you all of this in about 10 minutes: knowledge base and page-level permissions, AI answers, version history and analytics, with no new logins.
