head to head · open source
Docs vs PandaWiki
Docs has 16,838 GitHub stars, 639 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. PandaWiki has 10,273 stars, 1,024 forks, 324 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Docs leads on adoption by 64% (16,838 vs 10,273 stars). Docs is written in Python under MIT; PandaWiki is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Docs has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, PandaWiki 10%. Docs 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 | PandaWiki | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 10K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 639 | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 PandaWiki if
- You want the PandaWiki feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and PandaWiki 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 PandaWiki
PandaWiki is an open source knowledge base system driven by large language models, written in TypeScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the self hosted documentation and knowledge base ecosystem, alongside the AI and LLM tooling that powers its features. The project is designed to build intelligent product documentation, technical documentation, FAQ pages, and blog systems, and it ships as a self hosted application that runs on a Linux server through Docker. Its topic list places it squarely in the ai, docs, documentation, kb, llm, self hosted, and wiki space, and the repository has accumula…
read the full PandaWiki overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Docs or PandaWiki more popular?
Docs has 16,838 GitHub stars and PandaWiki has 10,273. Docs has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docs and PandaWiki free?
Both are open source. Docs is licensed under MIT and PandaWiki under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docs and PandaWiki?
Docs is written in Python and PandaWiki 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 PandaWiki?
Choose Docs if you want the larger community (16,838 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose PandaWiki if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.