head to head · open source
devdocs vs schemaspy
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars, 2,656 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. schemaspy has 3,736 stars, 357 forks, 303 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. devdocs leads on adoption by 960% (39,596 vs 3,736 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; schemaspy is written in HTML under LGPL-3.0. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, schemaspy 10%. devdocs 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 | schemaspy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-03-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 357 |
| 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 schemaspy if
- You want the schemaspy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and schemaspy 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 schemaspy
SchemaSpy is a database metadata analyzer. It helps your database administrators and developers visualize, navigate and understand your data model. With an easy to use HTML based report, traversing the entity relationship diagram has never been simpler. Our product showcase is available at Installation SchemaSpy is a standalone application without GUI. Just download the latest JAR file or Docker image and you're ready to go! To use SchemaSpy from Maven, please see the Maven chapter below. For unreleased bug fixes and features in progress, download our snapshot JAR or use Docker tag snapshot Maven SchemaSpy…
read the full schemaspy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or schemaspy more popular?
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars and schemaspy has 3,736. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and schemaspy free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and schemaspy under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and schemaspy?
devdocs is written in Ruby and schemaspy 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 schemaspy?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,596 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose schemaspy if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.