head to head · open source
Docs vs zeal
Docs has 16,963 GitHub stars, 688 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zeal has 12,865 stars, 852 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Docs leads on adoption by 32% (16,963 vs 12,865 stars). Docs is written in TypeScript under MIT; zeal is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Docs has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, zeal 7%. 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 | zeal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 688 | ⑂ 852 |
| 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 TypeScript
- 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 Docs
Chat on Matrix • Documentation • Try Docs • Contact us La Suite Docs: Collaborative Text Editing Docs, where your notes can become knowledge through live collaboration. Docs is an open source collaborative editor that helps teams write, organize, and share knowledge together in real time. What is Docs? Docs is an open source alternative to tools like Notion or Google Docs, focused on: Real time collaboration Clean, structured documents Knowledge organization Data ownership & self hosting Built for public organizations, companies, and open communities. Why use Docs? Writing Rich text & Markdown editing Slash…
About zeal
Zeal Zeal is an offline documentation browser: your personal reference library, searchable in an instant and available without a connection. Originally inspired by Dash, it supports the same docset format. Download Binary builds for Windows and other installation options are available on the download page. Windows builds require Windows 10 version 1809 or later. How to use After installing Zeal, go to File → Docset Library , select the docsets you want, and click the Download button. Query and filter docsets Limit the search scope by prefixing your query with a docset name and a colon: cpp:vector To search…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Docs or zeal more popular?
Docs has 16,963 GitHub stars and zeal has 12,865. Docs has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docs and zeal free?
Both are open source. Docs is licensed under MIT and zeal under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docs and zeal?
Docs is written in TypeScript 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, Docs or zeal?
Choose Docs if you want the larger community (16,963 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zeal if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.