head to head · open source
devdocs vs pdoc
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars, 2,656 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pdoc has 1,187 stars, 146 forks, 109 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. devdocs leads on adoption by 3,236% (39,596 vs 1,187 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; pdoc is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pdoc 12%. devdocs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (api-documentation, docs, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| devdocs | pdoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 146 |
| 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 pdoc if
- You want the pdoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pdoc 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 pdoc
pdoc ==== Auto generate API documentation for Python 3+ projects. Project website [Documentation] [Documentation]: Installation $ pip install pdoc3 Usage Pdoc will accept a Python module file, package directory or an import path. $ pdoc your project See pdoc help for more command line switches and the [documentation] for more usage examples. Features Simple usage. Generate sensible API (+ prose) documentation without any special configuration. Support for common [docstrings formats] (Markdown, numpydoc, Google style docstrings), LaTeX math, and some [reST directives]. Support for [PEP 484] and [PEP 526] type…
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 pdoc more popular?
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars and pdoc has 1,187. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and pdoc free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and pdoc under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and pdoc?
devdocs is written in Ruby and pdoc in Python. 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 pdoc?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,596 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose pdoc if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.