head to head · open source
docsify vs cheat
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars, 5,789 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cheat has 13,456 stars, 853 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. docsify leads on adoption by 134% (31,513 vs 13,456 stars). docsify is written in JavaScript under MIT; cheat is written in Go under MIT. docsify has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, cheat 6%. docsify 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
| docsify | cheat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 853 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick docsify if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cheat if
- You want the cheat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and cheat fits your workflow better
About docsify
Docsify is a client side documentation site generator that turns one or more Markdown files into a website with no build process, aimed at developers and maintainers who want to publish documentation from a static host such as GitHub Pages.
read the full docsify overview →
About cheat
cheat is an MIT licensed, Go written command line tool for nix system administrators that creates and displays interactive cheatsheets, so that options for commands used frequently but not frequently enough to remember stay one command away.
read the full cheat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is docsify or cheat more popular?
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars and cheat has 13,456. docsify has the larger community by that measure.
Are docsify and cheat free?
Both are open source. docsify is licensed under MIT and cheat under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docsify and cheat?
docsify is written in JavaScript and cheat in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, docsify or cheat?
Choose docsify if you want the larger community (31,513 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cheat if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.