head to head · open source
devdocs vs wiki
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. wiki has 28,937 stars, 3,314 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 36% (39,461 vs 28,937 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; wiki is written in Vue under AGPL-3.0. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, wiki 11%. wiki 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 | wiki | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 29K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 3.3K |
| 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 wiki if
- You want the wiki feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and wiki 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 wiki
Wiki.js is a modern, lightweight wiki application built on NodeJS and distributed as open source under the AGPL 3.0 licence, aimed at teams and organisations that want to publish and maintain their own documentation and knowledge base rather than renting a hosted one.
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or wiki more popular?
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars and wiki has 28,937. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and wiki free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and wiki under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and wiki?
devdocs is written in Ruby and wiki in Vue. 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 wiki?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,461 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose wiki if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.