head to head · open source
docusaurus vs dokka
docusaurus has 66,641 GitHub stars, 10,125 forks, 430 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dokka has 3,817 stars, 504 forks, 675 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. docusaurus leads on adoption by 1,646% (66,641 vs 3,817 stars). docusaurus is written in TypeScript under MIT; dokka is written in Kotlin under Apache-2.0. docusaurus has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, dokka 13%. docusaurus 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
| docusaurus | dokka | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 504 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick docusaurus if
- You weight community size — 67K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dokka if
- You want the dokka feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and dokka fits your workflow better
About docusaurus
Docusaurus Introduction Docusaurus is a project for building, deploying, and maintaining open source project websites easily. Short on time? Check out our 5 minute tutorial ⏱️! Tip : use docusaurus.new to test Docusaurus immediately in a playground. Simple to Start Docusaurus is built in a way so that it can get running in as little time as possible. We've built Docusaurus to handle the website build process so you can focus on your project. Localizable Docusaurus ships with localization support via CrowdIn. Empower and grow your international community by translating your documentation. Customizable While…
read the full docusaurus overview →
About dokka
Dokka Dokka is an API documentation engine for Kotlin. Just like Kotlin itself, Dokka supports mixed language projects. It understands Kotlin's KDoc comments and Java's Javadoc comments. Dokka can generate documentation in multiple formats, including its own modern HTML format, multiple flavors of Markdown, and Java's Javadoc HTML. Some libraries that use Dokka for their API reference documentation: kotlinx.coroutines Bitmovin Hexagon Ktor OkHttp Gradle You can run Dokka using Gradle, Maven or from the command line. It is also highly pluggable. Documentation Comprehensive documentation for Dokka is available on…
read the full dokka overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is docusaurus or dokka more popular?
docusaurus has 66,641 GitHub stars and dokka has 3,817. docusaurus has the larger community by that measure.
Are docusaurus and dokka free?
Both are open source. docusaurus is licensed under MIT and dokka under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docusaurus and dokka?
docusaurus is written in TypeScript and dokka in Kotlin. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, docusaurus or dokka?
Choose docusaurus if you want the larger community (66,641 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dokka if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.