head to head · open source
docsify vs xyd
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars, 5,789 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xyd has 114 stars, 8 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docsify leads on adoption by 27,543% (31,513 vs 114 stars). docsify is written in JavaScript under MIT; xyd is written in TypeScript under MIT. docsify has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, xyd 7%. xyd was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (docs, documentation, markdown), 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 | xyd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 114 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 8 |
| 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 xyd if
- You want the xyd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and xyd 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 xyd
xyd is an MIT licensed, TypeScript documentation framework for developer facing teams that publish prose docs and generated OpenAPI, GraphQL and REST API references from one toolchain, distributed as the xyd js package with documentation at xyd.dev.
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Frequently asked questions
Is docsify or xyd more popular?
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars and xyd has 114. docsify has the larger community by that measure.
Are docsify and xyd free?
Both are open source. docsify is licensed under MIT and xyd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docsify and xyd?
docsify is written in JavaScript and xyd 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 xyd?
Choose docsify if you want the larger community (31,513 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xyd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.