head to head · open source
devdocs vs leafwiki
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars, 2,656 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. leafwiki has 1,213 stars, 102 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 3,164% (39,596 vs 1,213 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; leafwiki is written in Go under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, leafwiki 8%. leafwiki 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| devdocs | leafwiki | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 102 |
| 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 leafwiki if
- You want the leafwiki feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and leafwiki 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 leafwiki
🌿 LeafWiki Self hosted wiki. Single Go binary. SQLite + Markdown stored on disk. For engineers and self hosters who want structured, long lived documentation. No Node.js, no Redis, no Postgres — just a binary and a data directory. If you've looked at Wiki.js or Outline and thought "this is too much to operate for what I need" — this could fit for you. → Try it without installing: demo.leafwiki.com · Ctrl+E edit · Ctrl+S save · resets hourly → If it fits, a star helps others find it. → All install options (Docker Compose, Linux installer, binary) Table of Contents Features Good fit / not a fit Install Docker…
read the full leafwiki 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 leafwiki more popular?
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars and leafwiki has 1,213. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and leafwiki free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and leafwiki under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and leafwiki?
devdocs is written in Ruby and leafwiki 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 leafwiki?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,596 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose leafwiki if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.