head to head · open source
devdocs vs Docs
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars, 2,656 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docs has 16,963 stars, 688 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 133% (39,596 vs 16,963 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; Docs is written in TypeScript under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Docs 4%. Docs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (documentation), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| devdocs | Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 17K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 688 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick devdocs if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Docs if
- You want the Docs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Docs fits your workflow better
About devdocs
DevDocs — API Documentation Browser DevDocs combines multiple developer documentations in a clean and organized web UI with instant search, offline support, mobile version, dark theme, keyboard shortcuts, and more. DevDocs was created by Thibaut Courouble and is operated by freeCodeCamp. We are currently searching for maintainers Please reach out to the community on Discord if you would like to join the team! Keep track of development news: Join the contributors chat room on Discord Watch the repository on GitHub Table of Contents: Quick Start · Vision · App · Scraper · Commands · Contributing · Documentation ·…
read the full devdocs overview →
About Docs
Chat on Matrix • Documentation • Try Docs • Contact us La Suite Docs: Collaborative Text Editing Docs, where your notes can become knowledge through live collaboration. Docs is an open source collaborative editor that helps teams write, organize, and share knowledge together in real time. What is Docs? Docs is an open source alternative to tools like Notion or Google Docs, focused on: Real time collaboration Clean, structured documents Knowledge organization Data ownership & self hosting Built for public organizations, companies, and open communities. Why use Docs? Writing Rich text & Markdown editing Slash…
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or Docs more popular?
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars and Docs has 16,963. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and Docs free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Docs under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and Docs?
devdocs is written in Ruby and Docs in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, devdocs or Docs?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,596 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Docs if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.