head to head · open source
Docs vs wandao
Docs has 16,838 GitHub stars, 639 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. wandao has 1,160 stars, 136 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docs leads on adoption by 1,352% (16,838 vs 1,160 stars). Docs is written in Python under MIT; wandao is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Docs has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, wandao 12%. wandao was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (knowledge-base), 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 | wandao | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 639 | ⑂ 136 |
| 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 wandao if
- You want the wandao feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and wandao 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 wandao
Wandao (万能导) is a multi platform knowledge base Markdown import and export tool that turns content you have permission to access into local Markdown and pushes local Markdown back into supported platforms, built for people who need to back up, migrate, or study documentation without manual copying and pasting.
read the full wandao overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Docs or wandao more popular?
Docs has 16,838 GitHub stars and wandao has 1,160. Docs has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docs and wandao free?
Both are open source. Docs is licensed under MIT and wandao under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docs and wandao?
Docs is written in Python and wandao in Python. 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 wandao?
Choose Docs if you want the larger community (16,838 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose wandao if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.