head to head · open source
devdocs vs fern
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars, 2,656 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fern has 3,830 stars, 372 forks, 343 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 934% (39,596 vs 3,830 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 10%. 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 | ★ 40K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 372 |
| 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 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 — 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 fern
🌿 What is Fern? Fern is a platform that transforms your API definitions into production ready SDKs and beautiful documentation in minutes. With Fern, you can offer your users: 🧩 Type safe SDKs in multiple languages, including TypeScript, Python, Java, Go, Ruby, PHP, and C 📘 Developer documentation featuring an interactive UI and auto generated API + SDK references ✨ AI Search powered by an assistant trained on your docs, APIs, and SDKs that can instantly answer a developer's questions Fern supports leading API specifications including OpenAPI (REST, Webhooks), AsyncAPI (WebSockets), Protobuf (gRPC), and…
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or fern more popular?
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars and fern has 3,830. 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 (39,596 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.