head to head · open source
devdocs vs xyd
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars, 2,656 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xyd has 115 stars, 9 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. devdocs leads on adoption by 34,331% (39,596 vs 115 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; xyd is written in TypeScript under MIT. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, xyd 8%. devdocs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (docs, 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 | xyd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 115 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 9 |
| 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 xyd if
- You want the xyd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and xyd 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 xyd
Docs Framework for future dev. Quickstart [!IMPORTANT] Node 22.12+ is required Our Philosophy 1. Developer Experience designed to be easy to use, with a focus on developer experience 2. Extendability customize every part of documentation 3. Rich Content create engaging documentation with interactive components and dynamic content capabilities 4. Batteries Included everything to build docs at scale is here 5. Open we believe that docs frameworks should be fully open source Major Features 🎨 Themes Built in themes: Solar, Gusto, Poetry, Picasso, Opener, and Cosmo 🚀 Plug & Play Dev Server Instant development…
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or xyd more popular?
devdocs has 39,596 GitHub stars and xyd has 115. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and xyd free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and xyd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and xyd?
devdocs is written in Ruby and xyd 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 xyd?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,596 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose xyd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.