head to head · open source
jsdoc vs gollum
jsdoc has 15,471 GitHub stars, 1,493 forks, 459 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gollum has 14,338 stars, 1,560 forks, 91 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. jsdoc leads on adoption by 8% (15,471 vs 14,338 stars). jsdoc is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; gollum is written in Ruby under MIT. jsdoc has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, gollum 11%. jsdoc 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
| jsdoc | gollum | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick jsdoc if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gollum if
- You want the gollum feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and gollum fits your workflow better
About jsdoc
JSDoc An API documentation generator for JavaScript. Want to contribute to JSDoc? Please read CONTRIBUTING.md . Installation and Usage JSDoc supports stable versions of Node.js 8.15.0 and later. You can install JSDoc globally or in your project's node modules folder. To install the latest version on npm globally (might require sudo ; learn how to fix this): npm install g jsdoc To install the latest version on npm locally and save it in your package's package.json file: npm install save dev jsdoc Note : By default, npm adds your package using the caret operator in front of the version number (for example, ^3.6.3…
read the full jsdoc overview →
About gollum
gollum A git based Wiki Gollum is a simple wiki system built on top of Git. A Gollum Wiki is simply a git repository of a specific nature: A Gollum repository's contents are human editable text or markup files. Pages may be organized into directories any way you choose. Other content can also be included, for example images, PDFs and headers/footers for your pages. Gollum pages: May be written in a variety of markups. Can be edited with your favourite editor (changes will be visible after committing) or with the built in web interface. Can be displayed in all versions, reverted, etc. Gollum strives to be…
read the full gollum overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jsdoc or gollum more popular?
jsdoc has 15,471 GitHub stars and gollum has 14,338. jsdoc has the larger community by that measure.
Are jsdoc and gollum free?
Both are open source. jsdoc is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gollum under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jsdoc and gollum?
jsdoc is written in JavaScript and gollum in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, jsdoc or gollum?
Choose jsdoc if you want the larger community (15,471 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gollum if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.