# BlueSpice — Knowledge Base & Wiki

BlueSpice by Hallo Welt! GmbH holds a panel rating of 3/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 3/5), as of 2026-11-01. Provenance: EU-Made; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Hallo Welt! GmbH (https://bluespice.com)
- Category: [Knowledge Base & Wiki](https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): EU-Made
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/bluespice
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/bluespice/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/bluespice/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-11-06 · evaluated 2026-11-01 · oldest source captured 2026-11-01

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Hallo Welt! GmbH
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
- Data hosting: Default not stated; pages mention Germany [S4]
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026

## The panel's verdict

BlueSpice, an enterprise wiki from Hallo Welt! GmbH of Regensburg built on MediaWiki, scored strongest on sovereignty, ranging 6-8, and portability and hosting, at 6-7. Cloud data is stated to sit in Germany with a European server provider; a GDPR data processing agreement, technical-organizational measures and a subcontractor list are published; an internal BSI C5 audit report covers the cloud; and a documented Confluence migration path plus on-premises editions under a subscription contract make arrival and self-hosting concrete. Access control, at 6-7, rests on SAML, OpenID, LDAP and Kerberos authentication, named identity providers, and a Permission Manager in the pro edition. Knowledge governance is the weakest criterion at 0-3: two judges recorded no rating, and we found no public information on page owners, review intervals, approval workflows or read confirmations — dashboards and maintenance scripts are the nearest facts. Publishing and integrations, at 4-5, is broad internally; we found no public information on help-center publishing or custom domains. The captured pricing pages show no per-user or per-tier figures, only a 30-day free trial of the pro edition.

**Speaks for it:**
- Documented Confluence migration path with a questionnaire, planning meeting, migration script and live macro compatibility check.
- Self-hosting via on-premises editions under a subscription contract, with Docker installation instructions and documented patch and upgrade paths.
- Authentication via SAML, OpenID, LDAP and Kerberos, named identity providers such as Azure AD, Entra ID, Okta and Keycloak, and a Permission Manager in the pro edition.
- Wikipedia-based visual editor with collaborative editing since version 4.5, and central search across all wikis that finds content inside uploaded attachments.
- Cloud data stated to be located in Germany with a European server provider, a published GDPR data processing agreement with technical-organizational measures, and a published internal BSI C5 audit report for the cloud.

**Held against it:**
- We found no public information on page owners, review reminders, approval workflows or read confirmations.
- We found no public information on SCIM provisioning, enforced two-factor authentication or an audit log of access and permission changes.
- We found no public information on help-center publishing, custom domains, webhooks or an in-app widget.
- Migration requires conversion to WikiText with minor manual post-processing, and we found no public information confirming page hierarchy and permissions survive the move.
- We found no public information on a full export with page history in an open format, or on data return and deletion when a contract ends.

**Best for:**
- You are moving documentation off Confluence and want a scripted migration service with a live macro compatibility check.
- You must host the wiki on your own servers and want a German vendor with a published GDPR data processing agreement and subcontractor list.
- Your IT runs single sign-on via SAML, OpenID, LDAP or Kerberos against providers such as Azure AD, Entra ID, Okta or Keycloak.
- You want an open-source MediaWiki foundation with a free edition to pilot before a paid subscription.

**Avoid if:**
- You must demonstrate page-level governance to an auditor or certifier — named owners, review reminders, approval workflows and read confirmations — the bench's weakest criterion, scored 0 to 3.
- Your primary need is a customer-facing help center on a custom domain rather than an internal knowledge base.
- You require ISO 27001 certification today; the vendor states it as planned, with CyberEssentials certified and an internal BSI C5 audit report published instead.
- You need a documented exit — full export with page history in an open format and guaranteed data return at contract end.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The Operations Lead | The IT Administrator | The Support Knowledge Manager | The Engineering Lead | The Quality Manager | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Editor, structure & search | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 |
| Verification, ownership & freshness | n/r | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | n/r |
| Permissions, SSO & administration | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Help-center publishing & integrations | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Import, export & self-hosting | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| European sovereignty | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| **Weighted verdict** | **3/5** | **3/5** | **2.5/5** | **3/5** | **2.5/5** | **3/5** |

### The judges

- **The Operations Lead** (v1.0): Head of operations at a 180-person machine builder in Baden-Württemberg, where onboarding, travel rules and the service hotline's answers live in a shared drive, three OneNote books and two colleagues' heads. Wants one place the whole company actually uses: an editor office staff manage without training, a search that finds the answer rather than the file, pages that name who keeps them current, and a price that does not double when the workshop gets read access.
- **The IT Administrator** (v1.0): Runs IT for a public utility with 900 staff whose Confluence Server held twelve years of pages until Atlassian ended its support. Was offered the cloud, read the subprocessor list and went looking instead. Needs a migration that keeps page trees, permissions and attachments, single sign-on against Entra ID with groups synced, an audit log the auditor accepts, and an edition they can run in the utility's own data centre if the works council or the regulator asks.
- **The Support Knowledge Manager** (v1.0): Owns the knowledge base of a Dutch SaaS company with customers in six languages and a support team of twenty-five. Writes once for agents and customers, publishes the public part as a help center on the company's own domain, and watches which searches find nothing. Wants review dates that nag the right expert, translations kept in step with the source, a widget inside the product, and articles that show up in the help desk next to the ticket.
- **The Engineering Lead** (v1.0): Leads a forty-person engineering team at a Berlin fintech that writes runbooks, architecture decisions and on-call guides. Writes in Markdown, links pages to Jira tickets and Slack threads, and has moved the team's docs twice. Wants fast search, code blocks and diagrams that render, an API and webhooks to generate pages from the pipeline, AI answers that cite their pages, and a full export the next tool can read.
- **The Quality Manager** (v1.0): Quality manager at a medical device supplier certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 13485, where every work instruction must be approved, versioned and read by the people it applies to. Today that means Word files, a sign-off sheet and an audit every spring. Wants approval workflows with named reviewers, read confirmations, review dates that expire pages, an audit trail they can export for the certifier, and permissions that keep drafts out of sight.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has migrated a wiki whose "export" turned out to be one PDF per page, watched a self-hosted edition announced as retired with two years' notice, and read "your data is never used for training" above a subprocessor list naming two AI providers. Asks what a full export contains, which model reads the pages and where, whether readers are billed like editors — and what leaving would cost.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting location | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting options | Not determined | — | — |
| Open source | Not determined | — | — |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Borlabs DPA: Borlabs · yes [S12]
- BSI C5 audit report published: BSI C5 Kriterienkatalog · BlueSpice Cloud · yes [S17]
- BSI C5 audit status link: Zum aktuellen C5 Auditstatus [S17]
- BSI grundschutz: oriented towards (not certified) · BSI IT-Grundschutz [S9]
- C5 audit report published: internal audit report · BSI C5 criteria catalog · BlueSpice Cloud · yes [S16]
- Cloudflare transfer basis: Cloudflare · EU standard contractual clauses [S12]
- Cookie consent provider: cookie consent management · Borlabs – Benjamin A. Bornschein, Hamburg [S12]
- Cyberessentials: certified · CyberEssentials [S9]
- DPA documents: Legal page on website · yes · contract on commissioned processing (DPA) · declaration of technical-organizational measures · list of subcontractors [S9]
- Encryption: yes [S12]
- GDPR: yes · yes [S9]
- Google analytics consent: Google Analytics · consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR, 25 para. 1 TTDSG) [S12]
- Google analytics DPA: Google Analytics · yes [S12]
- Google signals: location · search history · YouTube history · demographic data · yes [S12]
- ISO 27001: planned · ISO/IEC 27001 [S9]
- ISO 27001 planned: yes · no [S16]
- ISO 27001 planned: yes · no [S17]
- Social buttons links only: yes [S12]
- Ssl: yes · yes [S4]
- Wcag: accessibility per WCAG 2.1 [S9]
- Zendesk bcr: Zendesk · Irish Data Protection Authority [S12]
- Zendesk DPA: Zendesk · yes [S12]

**Data**
- Agg evidence retention: AGG evidence obligations · 3 [S12]
- Application data retention: 6 [S12]
- Application withdrawal deletion: yes [S12]
- Borlabs consent storage: until deletion request, cookie deletion, or purpose expiry [S12]
- Server log retention: IP shortening at domain level · 7 [S12]
- Trial transfer: yes [S4]

**Hosting**
- Data location: Germany · European server provider [S4]
- EU standard: Hosting according to EU standard [S4]

**Integrations**
- AI: Azure OpenAI Services · ChatGPT · deepL · Ollama [S7]
- API: BlueSpice Galaxy API [S7]
- Authentication services: Amazon Cognito · AWS Single-Sign-on · Azure AD · Google OAuth · Keycloak · Microsoft Active Directory · Microsoft ADFS · Microsoft EntraID · NextCloud · Okta · Oracle Access Manager · Ping Identity · WSO2 [S7]
- Calendars maps: Google Calendar · Google Maps · OpenStreetMap [S7]
- Chat: Google Meet · Microsoft Teams · Rocket.Chat · Slack [S7]
- Diagrams: BPMN · Draw.io · LucidChart · Grafana [S7]
- Files documents: Google Document · Google Forms · Google Spreadsheet · Microsoft Excel · Microsoft PowerPoint · Microsoft Word · PDF [S7]
- Media: SoundCloud · Spotify · Twitch · Vimeo · YouTube [S7]
- Other: Bitbucket · Docusnap · Matomo · Gitlab · GitHub · ServiceNow [S7]
- Search: iFinder · OpenSearch [S7]
- Task management: Easy8 · Jira · Phabricator · OpenProject · YouTrack [S7]

**Legal**
- Anti bribery policy: yes [S13]
- Company: Hallo Welt! GmbH · publisher [S16]
- Company entity: Vendor company is Hallo Welt! GmbH [S19]
- Company name and role: Geschäftsführer und Verantwortlicher für die technologische Entwicklung · Hallo Welt! GmbH · Dr. Markus Glaser [S17]
- Controller: Hallo Welt! GmbH · info@hallowelt.com · +49 941 – 660 800 · Bruderwöhrdstraße 29, 93055 Regensburg, Germany [S12]
- Copyright: Website contents protected by copyright and ancillary copyright; publication does not consent to third-party use [S11]
- DPA with tom: yes [S13]
- Entity name: Hallo Welt! GmbH · Bruderwöhrdstraße 29, 93055 Regensburg, Germany [S11]
- Eula partner customers: yes [S13]
- Gtc available: yes [S13]
- News license: Site news is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International unless noted otherwise [S18]
- News license: News on the website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International unless otherwise stated [S19]
- News license: News auf dieser Website · CC BY 4.0 [S17]
- Partner tnc: yes [S13]
- Privacy policy: yes [S13]
- Register: Local court Regensburg · HRB 10467 [S11]
- Subscription contract: yes [S13]
- Tax number: 244/128/00334 · Tax office Regensburg [S11]
- VAT id: DE 253050833 [S11]
- Vulnerability disclosure policy: yes [S13]

**Pricing**
- Trial: 0 · yes · 30 [S4]

**Product**
- AI support: yes [S15]
- Attachment search: Search inside uploaded file attachments [S15]
- Audit report date: 2024-05-06 [S17]
- Authentication standards: Kerberos · LDAP · OpenID · SAML [S7]
- Based on mediawiki: BlueSpice Galaxy · MediaWiki [S5]
- Bulk import formats: MediaWiki XML · CSV [S22]
- Bulk import formats: special pages via the interface · MediaWiki XML · CSV [S21]
- Business continuity: yes · yes [S9]
- Central search: Central Search searches all Galaxy wikis at once with result filters [S2]
- Central search: Central search across all Galaxy wikis with filters [S15]
- Cloud hosting description: Vendor-hosted cloud; customers don't manage servers, storage or legal compliance [S4]
- Cloud security measures: constant monitoring of the cloud services · yes [S9]
- Cloud to onpremises move: FAQ question exists about moving data from cloud to on-premises; answer content not shown on page [S21]
- Collaborative editing: yes · 4.5 [S14]
- Collabpad server config: Server configuration documentation for CollabPads exists [S10]
- Customer specific extensions: yes [S3]
- Dashboards: yes [S2]
- Dashboards: Dashboards with key content and metrics [S15]
- Docker installation: Docker installation instructions available [S10]
- Editions on premises: subscription contract · Sky · Spahhire · Indigo [S3]
- Faq topics listed: Word file migration · Confluence migration · Plugin artifacts (Linchpin-Events, TeamCalendars, Draw.io) migration · Cloud to On-Premises data move · Regular data import [S22]
- Feature rights management: yes [S2]
- Feature workplace integration: yes [S2]
- File attachments search: Uploaded file content is searchable [S2]
- Find knowledge module: yes [S2]
- Galaxy API: BlueSpice Galaxy API · custom integrations · custom extensions · fetching external data · process automation · yes [S20]
- Google fonts local: yes · yes [S12]
- Import script server: Import scripts can be run on the server [S22]
- Import server script: import script executed on the server · yes [S21]
- Import special pages: Special pages accessible via the UI exist for XML and CSV import [S22]
- Install docker only v5: BlueSpice 5 · yes [S10]
- Installation support: yes [S3]
- Installation types: 4 [S3]
- Integration scope: BlueSpice supports integration of many applications including authentication, import/export and AI-powered automations [S20]
- Knowledge finding: yes [S15]
- Known issues check: Known installation or upgrade issues can be checked [S10]
- Live macro check: Live Macro Check: paste macro usage list into macro checker to test compatibility [S6]
- Maintenance scripts: Maintenance scripts documented: CreatePDF, DumpNamespaces, batchStabilize, executeTransfer [S10]
- Mediawiki base: BlueSpice adds business-relevant functions to MediaWiki [S2]
- Mediawiki security contributions: connecting the software to authentication servers [S9]
- Migration export formats: HTML · XML · JSON · CSV [S22]
- Migration export formats: HTML · XML · JSON · CSV [S21]
- Migration from confluence: Positioned as a Confluence alternative/migration path [S1]
- Migration from mediawiki: Migration from MediaWiki to BlueSpice documentation exists [S10]
- Migration input format: Data must be in a MediaWiki-readable format, i.e. content formatted as WikiText [S22]
- Migration manual postprocessing: Minor manual post-processing may be necessary depending on data complexity [S22]
- Migration manual postprocessing: yes [S21]
- Migration procedure: data analysis and migration plan · export from source system · data preparation (segmentation, WikiText conversion, linking images/documents) · import via scripts · manual post-processing [S21]
- Migration process: analyse data and create migration plan · export from source system · prepare/convert to WikiText · import via scripts · minor manual post-processing [S22]
- Migration questionnaire: migration questionnaire and planning meeting · yes [S21]
- Migration script: Standardized migration process, transfer via script, development of additional macro functions possible [S6]
- Migration segmentation: Data is segmented into units imported as wiki articles and converted to WikiText; images and documents are linked to wiki articles [S22]
- Migration service offered: Vendor offers migration services [S22]
- Migration support tools: Vendor supports with a migration questionnaire and, if necessary, a planning meeting [S22]
- Migration wikitext requirement: Migrated data must be readable by MediaWiki and formatted in WikiText [S21]
- No server management: Hosting includes servers, storage space and legal compliance [S4]
- On premises self hosted: BlueSpice on-premises: customer hosts on own servers [S3]
- Open source: BlueSpice Galaxy is open source / free software [S5]
- Overview: Business features turn MediaWiki into an enterprise package [S15]
- Patch update 4x: Patch update path from BlueSpice 4.x up to 4.4.x documented [S10]
- Permission manager: BlueSpice pro includes a Permission Manager for rights/permission management [S19]
- Plugin migration support: FAQ question exists about migrating plugin products (Linchpin Events, TeamCalendars, Draw.io); answer content not shown on page [S21]

**Subprocessors**
- Discourse: Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc. · France · content delivery network with DNS [S12]
- Google ads: Google Ads (Google Ireland Limited) · Ireland · online advertising [S12]
- Google analytics: Google Analytics (Google Ireland Limited) · Ireland · web analysis [S12]
- Google doubleclick: Google DoubleClick (Google Ireland Limited) · interest-based advertising [S12]
- Jquery cdn: Google CDN (jQuery/Ajax) · yes [S12]
- Wordpress: WordPress (Automattic Inc) · USA [S12]
- Youtube: YouTube (Google Ireland Limited) · yes · yes [S12]

**Support**
- Community forum: community forum for installation, maintenance, and usage questions about BlueSpice free [S10]
- Consultation: 0 · yes [S4]
- Free consultation: personal consultation with MediaWiki experts · yes [S3]
- Trial system: Free trial system can be ordered [S1]
- Trust safety center: Trust & Safety Center with information on software security, cloud security, data privacy and compliance [S9]

23 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/bluespice

## Questions

### Is BlueSpice European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies BlueSpice as EU-Made.

### Where does BlueSpice store data?

The default storage location for customer data is not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026. The vendor’s pages mention Germany as hosting location, per [the vendor’s page captured 1 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/13433).

### Does BlueSpice have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to BlueSpice?

As of 1 Nov 2026, the panel rates [Document360 (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/document360), [BookStack (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/bookstack) and [XWiki (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/xwiki) highest among the other 13 Knowledge Base & Wiki products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Document360](https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/document360) (UK / wider Europe). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [BlueSpice alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/bluespice/alternatives).

## Head-to-head

- [BlueSpice vs XWiki](https://whats-best.ai/compare/bluespice-vs-xwiki.md)

## What this page leaves out

- 40 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 12 integrations facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 5 support facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 4 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 4 subprocessors facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 hosting facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 legal fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 pricing fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 3 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are shown as unknown.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://bluespice.com/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S2] Features page: https://bluespice.com/products/technology/features/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S3] Features page (on-premises edition): https://bluespice.com/products/technology/on-premises/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S4] Features page (cloud hosting): https://bluespice.com/products/technology/cloud-hosting/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S5] Features page (open source): https://bluespice.com/products/technology/open-source/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S6] Features page (Confluence migration): https://bluespice.com/confluence-migration-process/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S7] Integrations page: https://bluespice.com/integrations/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S8] Pricing page: https://bluespice.com/buy/prices/configure-your-price/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S9] Security page: https://bluespice.com/products/technology/data-protection-security/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S10] Documentation (installation): https://en.wiki.bluespice.com/wiki/Setup:Installation_Guide (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S11] Legal notice: https://bluespice.com/imprint/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S12] Privacy policy: https://bluespice.com/privacy/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S13] Contracts and terms: https://bluespice.com/legal/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S14] Editor, structure & search — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/products/frequently-asked-questions/features-functions/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S15] Editor, structure & search — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/de/produkte/technologie/funktionen/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S16] Verification, ownership & freshness — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/audit-report-bsi-c5-criteria-catalog/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S17] Verification, ownership & freshness — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/de/auditbericht-bsi-c5-kriterienkatalog/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S18] Permissions, SSO & administration — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/the-permission-manager-rights-management-in-bluespice-pro/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S19] Permissions, SSO & administration — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/de/der-permission-manager-rechteverwaltung-in-bluespice-pro/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S20] Help-center publishing & integrations — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/de/integrationen/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S21] Import, export & self-hosting — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/products/frequently-asked-questions/data-migration/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S22] Import, export & self-hosting — found from sitemap: https://bluespice.com/de/produkte/haeufig-gestellte-fragen/migration-von-daten/ (checked 2026-11-01)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "BlueSpice — Knowledge Base & Wiki", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-06. https://whats-best.ai/software/knowledge-base/bluespice

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1226?target=page