head to head · open source
storybook vs jsdoc
storybook has 91,081 GitHub stars, 10,452 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jsdoc has 15,463 stars, 1,492 forks, 459 open issues and last shipped yesterday. storybook leads on adoption by 489% (91,081 vs 15,463 stars). storybook is written in TypeScript under MIT; jsdoc is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. storybook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, jsdoc 10%. storybook was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (documentation, javascript), 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
| storybook | jsdoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick storybook if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick jsdoc if
- You want the jsdoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and jsdoc fits your workflow better
About storybook
Storybook is an open source, MIT licensed frontend workshop, written in TypeScript, for building, documenting, and testing UI components and pages in isolation, aimed at frontend engineers and design system teams working in React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, React Native, HTML, and other supported renderers.
read the full storybook overview →
About jsdoc
JSDoc is an API documentation generator for JavaScript that reads annotations in source comments and produces a browsable documentation site, aimed at JavaScript developers and library maintainers who need reference documentation to stay in sync with code.
read the full jsdoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is storybook or jsdoc more popular?
storybook has 91,081 GitHub stars and jsdoc has 15,463. storybook has the larger community by that measure.
Are storybook and jsdoc free?
Both are open source. storybook is licensed under MIT and jsdoc under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between storybook and jsdoc?
storybook is written in TypeScript and jsdoc in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, storybook or jsdoc?
Choose storybook if you want the larger community (91,081 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose jsdoc if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.