head to head · open source
devdocs vs liam
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. liam has 5,116 stars, 239 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 671% (39,462 vs 5,116 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; liam is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, liam 5%. liam was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (documentation, documentation-tool), 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 | liam | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 239 |
| 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 liam if
- You want the liam 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 liam 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 liam
Liam is an open source TypeScript tool that automatically generates beautiful, interactive ER diagrams from an existing database schema, built for developers and teams who need to read, document, and share the structure of a database without drawing diagrams by hand.
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or liam more popular?
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars and liam has 5,116. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and liam free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and liam under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and liam?
devdocs is written in Ruby and liam 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 liam?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,462 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose liam if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.