head to head · open source
devdocs vs kin-openapi
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. kin-openapi has 3,292 stars, 512 forks, 114 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. devdocs leads on adoption by 1,099% (39,462 vs 3,292 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; kin-openapi is written in Go under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, kin-openapi 16%. kin-openapi 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 | kin-openapi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 512 |
| 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 kin-openapi if
- You want the kin-openapi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kin-openapi 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 kin-openapi
Introduction A Go project for handling OpenAPI files. We target: OpenAPI v2.0 (formerly known as Swagger) OpenAPI v3.0 OpenAPI v3.1 OpenAPI v3.2 Partially: Media Type Object itemSchema , Path Item Object query (the HTTP QUERY method) and additionalOperations (custom HTTP methods). Licensed under the MIT License. Contributors, users and sponsors The project has received pull requests from many people. Thanks to everyone! Please, give back to this project by becoming a sponsor. Here's some projects that depend on kin openapi : github.com/go fuego/fuego "Framework generating OpenAPI 3 spec from source code" github.c…
read the full kin-openapi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or kin-openapi more popular?
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars and kin-openapi has 3,292. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and kin-openapi free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and kin-openapi under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and kin-openapi?
devdocs is written in Ruby and kin-openapi in Go. 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 kin-openapi?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,462 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose kin-openapi if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.