Wikis and conventional web pages differ in a number of ways.

Wikis	Conventional Web Pages
Open editing	Limited editing
Use simple text formatting language or WYSIWYG editor	Conventional HTML or other programming language
Earlier versions of the text stored and can be easily reverted	Earlier versions of the text not automatically stored
Easy to create new pages	Harder to create new pages
Equal user roles	Hierarchical user roles
Multiple authorship, which may be anonymous	Limited known authorship
Communal, collaborative	Individual (with specific permissions)
Requires no technical knowledge	Requires special tools and knowledge
Pages considered to be always in progress	Pages considered finalized
Easy to determine when a page was last updated	Difficult or impossible to determine when a page was last updated
Low security	Higher security

Notes:
Features vary by wiki and some control features (e.g., editing, anonymity, security) are often enabled due to vandalism and spam on public wikis