head to head · open source
docusaurus vs devdocs
docusaurus has 66,471 GitHub stars, 10,071 forks, 430 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. devdocs has 39,542 stars, 2,653 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docusaurus leads on adoption by 68% (66,471 vs 39,542 stars). docusaurus is written in TypeScript under MIT; devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0. docusaurus has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, devdocs 7%. devdocs 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
| docusaurus | devdocs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 40K |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-10-10 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 2.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick docusaurus if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick devdocs if
- You want the devdocs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and devdocs fits your workflow better
About docusaurus
Docusaurus is an open source static site generator from Meta for maintainers who need a documentation, blog, and project website that is easy to keep up to date.
read the full docusaurus overview →
About devdocs
DevDocs is an API documentation browser that combines multiple developer documentations into a single, clean and organized web UI with instant search, offline support, a mobile version, a dark theme and keyboard shortcuts, and it is aimed at developers who need to read and search API and reference documentation quickly.
read the full devdocs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is docusaurus or devdocs more popular?
docusaurus has 66,471 GitHub stars and devdocs has 39,542. docusaurus has the larger community by that measure.
Are docusaurus and devdocs free?
Both are open source. docusaurus is licensed under MIT and devdocs under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docusaurus and devdocs?
docusaurus is written in TypeScript and devdocs in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, docusaurus or devdocs?
Choose docusaurus if you want the larger community (66,471 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose devdocs if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.