head to head · open source
devdocs vs zeal
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars, 2,643 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. zeal has 12,796 stars, 844 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. devdocs leads on adoption by 208% (39,461 vs 12,796 stars). devdocs is written in Ruby under MPL-2.0; zeal is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. devdocs has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, zeal 7%. devdocs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (api-documentation, developer-tools, 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 | zeal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 13K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 844 |
| 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 zeal if
- You want the zeal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and zeal 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 zeal
Zeal is an offline documentation browser: a personal reference library of API and language documentation that is searchable in an instant and available without a connection, built in C++ on Qt and released under the GPL 3.0.
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Frequently asked questions
Is devdocs or zeal more popular?
devdocs has 39,461 GitHub stars and zeal has 12,796. devdocs has the larger community by that measure.
Are devdocs and zeal free?
Both are open source. devdocs is licensed under MPL-2.0 and zeal under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between devdocs and zeal?
devdocs is written in Ruby and zeal in C++. 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 zeal?
Choose devdocs if you want the larger community (39,461 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose zeal if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.