head to head · open source
Docs vs liam
Docs has 16,838 GitHub stars, 639 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. liam has 5,116 stars, 239 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docs leads on adoption by 229% (16,838 vs 5,116 stars). Docs is written in Python under MIT; liam is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Docs has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, liam 5%. liam 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
| Docs | liam | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 639 | ⑂ 239 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Docs if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick liam if
- You want the liam feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and liam fits your workflow better
About Docs
Docs is an open source collaborative text editor for creating, editing, and sharing documents in real time. It lives in the open source documentation and knowledge base ecosystem, and it is built with Django and React for web native use. The repository describes Docs as a web native editor made for teams that need clean documents and sub documents without surrendering data to a hosted service.
About liam
Liam is an open source TypeScript tool that automatically generates beautiful, interactive ER diagrams from an existing database schema, built for developers and teams who need to read, document, and share the structure of a database without drawing diagrams by hand.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Docs or liam more popular?
Docs has 16,838 GitHub stars and liam has 5,116. Docs has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docs and liam free?
Both are open source. Docs is licensed under MIT and liam under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docs and liam?
Docs is written in Python and liam 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, Docs or liam?
Choose Docs if you want the larger community (16,838 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose liam if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.