head to head · open source
devdocs vs NoteDiscovery
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NoteDiscovery has 2,807 stars, 233 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 1,306% (39,461 vs 2,807 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; NoteDiscovery is written in JavaScript under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, NoteDiscovery 8%. NoteDiscovery 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| devdocs | NoteDiscovery | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 233 |
| 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 NoteDiscovery if
- You want the NoteDiscovery feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and NoteDiscovery 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 NoteDiscovery
NoteDiscovery is a lightweight, self hosted note taking and knowledge base application, written in JavaScript and released under the MIT licence, that stores every note as a plain markdown file in folders on your own server and is aimed at privacy conscious individuals, developers, knowledge workers, and teams who want to own their data.
read the full NoteDiscovery 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 NoteDiscovery more popular?
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars and NoteDiscovery has 2,807. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and NoteDiscovery free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and NoteDiscovery under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and NoteDiscovery?
devdocs is written in Ruby and NoteDiscovery in JavaScript. 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 NoteDiscovery?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,461 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose NoteDiscovery if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.