head to head · open source
docsify vs liam
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars, 5,789 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped yesterday. liam has 5,116 stars, 239 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docsify leads on adoption by 516% (31,513 vs 5,116 stars). docsify is written in JavaScript under MIT; liam is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. docsify has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, liam 5%. liam was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (documentation, documentation-tool), 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 | liam | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 239 |
| 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 liam if
- You want the liam feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and liam 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 liam
Liam is an open source TypeScript tool that automatically generates beautiful, interactive ER diagrams from an existing database schema, built for developers and teams who need to read, document, and share the structure of a database without drawing diagrams by hand.
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Frequently asked questions
Is docsify or liam more popular?
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars and liam has 5,116. docsify has the larger community by that measure.
Are docsify and liam free?
Both are open source. docsify is licensed under MIT and liam under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docsify and liam?
docsify is written in JavaScript and liam in TypeScript. 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 liam?
Choose docsify if you want the larger community (31,513 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose liam if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.