head to head · open source
devdocs vs react-docgen
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. react-docgen has 3,820 stars, 315 forks, 104 open issues and last shipped today. devdocs leads on adoption by 933% (39,462 vs 3,820 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; react-docgen is written in TypeScript under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, react-docgen 8%. react-docgen was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (documentation), 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 | react-docgen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 315 |
| 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 react-docgen if
- You want the react-docgen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and react-docgen 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 react-docgen
react docgen react docgen is a highly customizable library that extracts information from React components and returns this information in a structured machine readable format from which documentations can be generated. @react docgen/cli is a cli wrapper around the library allowing using react docgen on the command line. Typescript See this issue about the status of TypeScript. Documentation For version 5.x please checkout the README.md on the 5.x branch For version 6.x and newer please visit react docgen.dev License This project is licensed under the MIT License.
read the full react-docgen overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or react-docgen more popular?
devdocs has 39,462 GitHub stars and react-docgen has 3,820. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and react-docgen free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and react-docgen under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and react-docgen?
devdocs is written in Ruby and react-docgen 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 react-docgen?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,462 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose react-docgen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.