head to head · open source
devdocs vs L5-Swagger
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. L5-Swagger has 2,935 stars, 413 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. devdocs leads on adoption by 1,245% (39,462 vs 2,935 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; L5-Swagger is written in PHP under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, L5-Swagger 14%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| devdocs | L5-Swagger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-06-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 413 |
| 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 L5-Swagger if
- You want the L5-Swagger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and L5-Swagger 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 L5-Swagger
L5 Swagger OpenApi or Swagger Specification for your Laravel project made easy. ========== Please visit L5 Swagger Wiki for more information: Installation & Configuration Change Log Migration Guides Using Swagger UI with Passport Tips Support Disclaimer This package is a wrapper of Swagger php and swagger ui adapted to work with Laravel. The actual Swagger spec is beyond the scope of this package. All L5 Swagger does is package up swagger php and swagger ui in a Laravel friendly fashion, and tries to make it easy to serve. For info on how to use swagger php look here. For good examples of swagger php in action lo…
read the full L5-Swagger overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Documentation & Knowledge Base projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Documentation & Knowledge Base field.
Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or L5-Swagger more popular?
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars and L5-Swagger has 2,935. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and L5-Swagger free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and L5-Swagger under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and L5-Swagger?
devdocs is written in Ruby and L5-Swagger in PHP. 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 L5-Swagger?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,462 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose L5-Swagger if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.