head to head · open source
docsify vs Docs
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars, 5,789 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Docs has 16,829 stars, 634 forks, 370 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docsify leads on adoption by 87% (31,513 vs 16,829 stars). docsify is written in JavaScript under MIT; Docs is written in Python under MIT. docsify has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Docs 4%. 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
| docsify | Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 634 |
| 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 Docs if
- You want the Docs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Docs 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 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.
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Frequently asked questions
Is docsify or Docs more popular?
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars and Docs has 16,829. docsify has the larger community by that measure.
Are docsify and Docs free?
Both are open source. docsify is licensed under MIT and Docs under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docsify and Docs?
docsify is written in JavaScript and Docs 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, docsify or Docs?
Choose docsify if you want the larger community (31,513 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Docs if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.