head to head · open source
docsify vs kin-openapi
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars, 5,789 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kin-openapi has 3,292 stars, 512 forks, 114 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. docsify leads on adoption by 857% (31,513 vs 3,292 stars). docsify is written in JavaScript under MIT; kin-openapi is written in Go under MIT. docsify has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, kin-openapi 16%. 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 | kin-openapi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 512 |
| 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 kin-openapi if
- You want the kin-openapi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kin-openapi 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 kin-openapi
Introduction A Go project for handling OpenAPI files. We target: OpenAPI v2.0 (formerly known as Swagger) OpenAPI v3.0 OpenAPI v3.1 OpenAPI v3.2 Partially: Media Type Object itemSchema , Path Item Object query (the HTTP QUERY method) and additionalOperations (custom HTTP methods). Licensed under the MIT License. Contributors, users and sponsors The project has received pull requests from many people. Thanks to everyone! Please, give back to this project by becoming a sponsor. Here's some projects that depend on kin openapi : github.com/go fuego/fuego "Framework generating OpenAPI 3 spec from source code" github.c…
read the full kin-openapi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is docsify or kin-openapi more popular?
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars and kin-openapi has 3,292. docsify has the larger community by that measure.
Are docsify and kin-openapi free?
Both are open source. docsify is licensed under MIT and kin-openapi under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docsify and kin-openapi?
docsify is written in JavaScript and kin-openapi 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 kin-openapi?
Choose docsify if you want the larger community (31,513 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kin-openapi if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.