head to head · open source
devdocs vs mapnik
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars, 2,656 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mapnik has 3,973 stars, 839 forks, 730 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 897% (39,596 vs 3,973 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; mapnik is written in C++ under LGPL-2.1. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, mapnik 21%. mapnik 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 | mapnik | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | Ruby | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 839 |
| 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 mapnik if
- You want the mapnik feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-2.1 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and mapnik 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 mapnik
Mapnik is an open source toolkit for developing mapping applications. At the core is a C++ shared library providing algorithms and patterns for spatial data access and visualization. Mapnik is basically a collection of geographic objects like maps, layers, datasources, features, and geometries. The library doesn't rely on any OS specific "windowing systems" and it can be deployed to any server environment. It is intended to play fair in a multi threaded environment and is aimed primarily, but not exclusively, at web based development. For further information see and also our wiki documentation. Installation See…
read the full mapnik overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or mapnik more popular?
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars and mapnik has 3,973. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and mapnik free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and mapnik under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and mapnik?
devdocs is written in Ruby and mapnik in C++. 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 mapnik?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,596 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose mapnik if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.