head to head · open source
docsify vs zeal
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars, 5,789 forks, 94 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zeal has 12,796 stars, 844 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. docsify leads on adoption by 146% (31,513 vs 12,796 stars). docsify is written in JavaScript under MIT; zeal is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. docsify has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, zeal 7%. docsify 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, 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 | zeal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 844 |
| 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 zeal if
- You want the zeal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and zeal 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 zeal
Zeal is an offline documentation browser: a personal reference library of API and language documentation that is searchable in an instant and available without a connection, built in C++ on Qt and released under the GPL 3.0.
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Frequently asked questions
Is docsify or zeal more popular?
docsify has 31,513 GitHub stars and zeal has 12,796. docsify has the larger community by that measure.
Are docsify and zeal free?
Both are open source. docsify is licensed under MIT and zeal under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docsify and zeal?
docsify is written in JavaScript and zeal in C++. 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 zeal?
Choose docsify if you want the larger community (31,513 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zeal if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.