head to head · open source
wiki vs jsdoc
wiki has 28,937 GitHub stars, 3,314 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jsdoc has 15,463 stars, 1,492 forks, 459 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wiki leads on adoption by 87% (28,937 vs 15,463 stars). wiki is written in Vue under AGPL-3.0; jsdoc is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. wiki has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, jsdoc 10%. 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
| wiki | jsdoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 15K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Vue | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick wiki if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- 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 wiki
Wiki.js is a modern, lightweight wiki application built on NodeJS and distributed as open source under the AGPL 3.0 licence, aimed at teams and organisations that want to publish and maintain their own documentation and knowledge base rather than renting a hosted one.
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 wiki or jsdoc more popular?
wiki has 28,937 GitHub stars and jsdoc has 15,463. wiki has the larger community by that measure.
Are wiki and jsdoc free?
Both are open source. wiki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and jsdoc under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wiki and jsdoc?
wiki is written in Vue 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, wiki or jsdoc?
Choose wiki if you want the larger community (28,937 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose jsdoc if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.