head to head · open source
devdocs vs fern
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. fern has 3,782 stars, 345 forks, 343 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 943% (39,461 vs 3,782 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; fern is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, fern 9%. fern was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | fern | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 345 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick devdocs if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 fern if
- You want the fern feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and fern fits your workflow better
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 →
About fern
Fern is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript project in the API documentation and SDK generation ecosystem. It takes API definitions as input and produces client SDKs and developer documentation. The project centers on the fern api CLI, published on npm, and supports OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, Protobuf, and OpenRPC.
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or fern more popular?
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars and fern has 3,782. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and fern free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and fern under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and fern?
devdocs is written in Ruby and fern 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 fern?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,461 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose fern if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.