head to head · open source
devdocs vs xyd
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. xyd has 114 stars, 8 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devdocs leads on adoption by 34,515% (39,461 vs 114 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 7%. xyd 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 | ★ 39K | ★ 114 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 8 |
| 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 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 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 xyd
xyd is an MIT licensed, TypeScript documentation framework for developer facing teams that publish prose docs and generated OpenAPI, GraphQL and REST API references from one toolchain, distributed as the xyd js package with documentation at xyd.dev.
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or xyd more popular?
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars and xyd has 114. 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 (39,461 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose xyd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.