Fandom

Fandom hosts public wikis where fans document games, entertainment, and culture. It suits groups building a shared reference that anyone can read and contribute to; its free, unlimited-size hosting is appealing, but the public-only model and missing UCP features narrow its fit.

Overview

Any logged-in user with a confirmed email address can create a community through Fandom’s form. That makes starting a fan wiki straightforward, and the free hosting has no limit to wiki size. The trade-off is that every wiki is visible to everyone. Admins can require contributors to log in before editing, but that does not restrict who can read the pages.

Fandom says it serves 350 million people worldwide, with communities spanning 80 languages across 200 countries. That breadth makes it a plausible home for public projects with an international readership, though it does not guarantee a particular wiki will attract an audience.

Key features

Editing and community tools

UCP wikis can be edited from mobile devices through a visual editor or source mode. Revision history, media uploads, role permissions, and API access support collaborative upkeep, while Discussions, article comments, message walls, and blogs give members ways to interact beyond editing. Admins can switch off some community features, which helps communities tailor the experience.

There are limits to the feature set: UCP wikis do not offer live chat or wiki-style polls. Discussions does include a built-in polls feature, but it is not a substitute for live chat. Fandom lists extensions such as DPL, Loops, Variables, Gadgets, and Arrays as available upon request on UCP; SMW cannot be enabled because of performance concerns. Communities that depend on SMW or live chat should choose another host.

Wiki text is generally licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, though some wikis may use other permitted licenses. That matters for projects that intend to reuse or redistribute contributions. Fandom says it takes steps to handle information securely but cannot warrant that information provided to it will be secure. Payments are processed by a third-party provider, and Fandom says it does not directly store payment information.

Pricing

Fandom wiki hosting: free. The plan provides free wiki hosting with no limit to wiki size. There is no paid tier or trial to weigh against the free option in this offer, and the lack of a size cap makes it suitable for projects that may accumulate a large reference library. The main concession is not a quota but control: wikis remain public, and some desired features are unavailable.

For support, users can submit tickets routed to the relevant team, including Customer Support, Community Managers, Trust & Safety, or Community Operations. This route covers different kinds of issues, though it is ticket-based rather than a live-chat channel.

Platforms

Fandom is available on web, Android, and iOS. Mobile editing is specifically supported on UCP wikis, so contributors can update pages from mobile devices rather than being limited to desktop editing.

Who it's for

Fandom is a strong fit for open fan communities that need a shared, growing reference, want mobile contributions, and value discussion features alongside articles. It is a poor fit for internal documentation, sensitive material, or any group that needs to restrict reading access. Communities relying on UCP live chat or SMW should also look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Free hosting with no limit to wiki size gives large or growing public projects room to expand without a hosting bill.
• Pros: Mobile visual and source editing, revision history, media uploads, role permissions, and API access support a broad collaborative workflow.
• Pros: Discussions, article comments, message walls, and blogs add community interaction around the wiki.
• Cons: All wikis are public, even if admins require login to edit, so it cannot serve private knowledge bases.
• Cons: UCP lacks live chat and wiki-style polls, and SMW cannot be enabled, which rules it out for communities that depend on those tools.
• Cons: Contributions are generally under CC BY-SA 3.0, so projects should be comfortable with that licensing approach.

Alternatives

For a broader look at options, see Game Wiki Software, Wiki Software, or Community Platforms.

• Miraheze is another free wiki-hosting option, with 300+ extensions and skins and custom domains, making it worth considering if extension choice or a custom domain matters more than Fandom’s ecosystem.
• AnvilWiki offers a free, open-source MIT template hosted on Cloudflare Pages with unlimited bandwidth; choose it if a self-hostable template is preferable to a hosted fan community.
• Wikily offers free wiki creation and free reading across iOS, web, and Windows, and may suit readers comparing another no-cost wiki service.
• Huijiwiki offers free registration and site applications, though applications are not guaranteed approval; it is an option to consider alongside Fandom’s open creation process.
• Kanka offers unlimited entries and campaigns on its free Kobold plan, making it a candidate for campaign organization rather than a public fan wiki.
• LegendKeeper has a free Basic plan for viewing and exporting projects and collaborating with project owners; consider it when those project workflows matter more than open wiki hosting.
• RPG Story Toolkit is an open-source option with a free web plan capped at three documents and three image uploads, better suited to a small RPG project than an unlimited-size wiki.
• Campfire offers a free limited-access tier for writing and worldbuilding modules; consider it if those tools, rather than public wiki hosting, are the priority.

Verdict

Choose Fandom for a public fan wiki that needs free hosting without a size limit, mobile editing, and community features around its articles. Its decisive weakness is the lack of private wikis, compounded by UCP gaps such as unavailable live chat and SMW; projects that need privacy or those tools should use another platform.