head to head · open source
docsify vs react-docgen
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars, 5,789 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped yesterday. react-docgen has 3,820 stars, 315 forks, 104 open issues and last shipped today. docsify leads on adoption by 725% (31,513 vs 3,820 stars). docsify is written in JavaScript under MIT; react-docgen is written in TypeScript under MIT. docsify has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, react-docgen 8%. react-docgen 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 | react-docgen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 315 |
| 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 react-docgen if
- You want the react-docgen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and react-docgen 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 react-docgen
react docgen react docgen is a highly customizable library that extracts information from React components and returns this information in a structured machine readable format from which documentations can be generated. @react docgen/cli is a cli wrapper around the library allowing using react docgen on the command line. Typescript See this issue about the status of TypeScript. Documentation For version 5.x please checkout the README.md on the 5.x branch For version 6.x and newer please visit react docgen.dev License This project is licensed under the MIT License.
read the full react-docgen overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is docsify or react-docgen more popular?
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars and react-docgen has 3,820. docsify has the larger community by that measure.
Are docsify and react-docgen free?
Both are open source. docsify is licensed under MIT and react-docgen under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docsify and react-docgen?
docsify is written in JavaScript and react-docgen 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 react-docgen?
Choose docsify if you want the larger community (31,513 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose react-docgen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.