Here are some features that Sputnik offers out of the box.

Please note that nearly all of the features are optional and some are turned off by default.

Installation

• Zero-configuration installation on Unix.
• No root access required for installation.
• Additional modules can be installed using LuaRocks.
• Comes with a built-in Xavante servers but can run on other servers. (See WSAPI).
• Can be used with FastCGI.
• Windows installation is possible via LuaForWindows.

User management

• User account creation.
• Email validation of new accounts.
• New account creation can be turned off.
• Password recovery via email.
• User nodes.
• Node "ownership".
• Gravatar integration.

Permissions

• A permission system allows locking specific pages or classes of pages.
• More generally, specific actions or classes of actions on individual pages or classes of pages can be allowed or denied to individual users or classes of users.
• Nodes can be "owned" by users.

Editing

• Several markup options, with an interface for adding other markup engines.
• Markdown editing using MarkItUp.
• Configuration pages are syntax-checked in the editor.
• Preview mode.

Security

• Passwords salted and hashed using POSIX crypt(3) if available, with MD5 otherwise. See Authentication for more info.
• Protection against XSS attacks — see XSS Filtering.

Spam Protection

• Captcha support.
• Hashed field names and honey-pots.
• See Spam for more information.

Data Storage

• Storing data as plain text files.
• Storing data in a git repository.
• Storing data in an SQL database.
• All data can be stored in the same storage system.

History and RSS

• History and diff (per page or overall), with RSS feeds for individual pages and the whole site.
• RSS for Changes by Recent Users.
• Inline diff between versions.
• An RSS feed for individual pages and the site as a whole.

Web Optimization

• Configurable caching headers.
• HTTP compression.

Internationalization

• User interface available in English, Russian, Portuguese, and Spanish. (See Internationalization.)
• Easy to add your own language or change existing translations.
• Content and page names in any script with UTF8 support: see Спутник or 史潑尼克.
• User names can be in any left-to-right script.

Inheritance

• Typed pages with custom behaviors via prototype inheritance (see Node Fields).