head to head · open source
devdocs vs oscean
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. oscean has 561 stars, 81 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 6,934% (39,462 vs 561 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; oscean is written in HTML under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, oscean 14%. oscean 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 | oscean | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 561 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 81 |
| 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 oscean if
- You want the oscean feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and oscean 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 oscean
Oscean This is the repository for the Oscean wiki, see the on site documentation for more up to date details. Oscean is a static site written in Uxntal, a stack machine assembly language designed for a portable virtual machine. The database tables are stored as plain text files designed to fit in Uxn's 64kb of memory. The main branch is the live version . Build The oscean.rom file can be assembled with drifblim. The pre processor step generates temporary files for oscean to populate the wiki with. entry log , contains all the diary logs for that entry. entry map , contains all the incoming links for that entry. T…
read the full oscean overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or oscean more popular?
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars and oscean has 561. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and oscean free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and oscean under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and oscean?
devdocs is written in Ruby and oscean in HTML. 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 oscean?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,462 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose oscean if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.