head to head · open source
devdocs vs open-knowledge
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars, 2,656 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. open-knowledge has 4,764 stars, 325 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 731% (39,596 vs 4,764 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; open-knowledge is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, open-knowledge 7%. open-knowledge was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (docs), 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 | open-knowledge | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 325 |
| 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 open-knowledge if
- You want the open-knowledge feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and open-knowledge 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 open-knowledge
OpenKnowledge is a beautiful markdown editor with integrations with Claude, Codex, and other harnesses. For knowledge bases, LLM wikis, specs, and notes. Private, local, and free. website • desktop app • web UI + cli • 𝕏 • discord Features Highlights: Full true WYSIWYG so that editing markdown files feels like editing a Google Doc or Notion page. Desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) and web UI with file navigator, search, tabs, graph wiki link viewer, and more. Integrated side by side AI editing with Claude, Codex, OpenCode, Pi and others . Can be used with any harness/agent via MCP/CLI. Out of the box MCP…
read the full open-knowledge overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or open-knowledge more popular?
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars and open-knowledge has 4,764. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and open-knowledge free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and open-knowledge under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and open-knowledge?
devdocs is written in Ruby and open-knowledge 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 open-knowledge?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,596 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose open-knowledge if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.