head to head · open source
mkdocs-material vs persepolis
mkdocs-material has 27,466 GitHub stars, 4,148 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. persepolis has 7,455 stars, 708 forks, 317 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. mkdocs-material leads on adoption by 268% (27,466 vs 7,455 stars). mkdocs-material is written in Python under MIT; persepolis is written in Python under GPL-3.0. mkdocs-material has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, persepolis 9%. mkdocs-material was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| mkdocs-material | persepolis | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2025-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 708 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick mkdocs-material if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick persepolis if
- You want the persepolis feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and persepolis fits your workflow better
About mkdocs-material
Material for MkDocs is a documentation framework built on top of MkDocs, the static site generator for project documentation. It lives in the Python ecosystem and is distributed as a theme plus an accompanying set of plugins, so authors write documentation in Markdown and MkDocs builds it into a static site that the theme renders. The project is licensed under MIT, has existed for eleven years, and is maintained as an open source project with more than 27,000 stars and over 4,000 forks on GitHub.
read the full mkdocs-material overview →
About persepolis
Persepolis is a download manager written in Python and released under the GPL 3.0 license. It ships a graphical interface built with PyQt5 or PySide6 and is developed for GNU/Linux distributions, the BSDs, macOS, and Microsoft Windows. The project has existed for roughly ten years, carries 7,449 stars and 709 forks on GitHub, and uses the Meson build system. It is packaged for Arch Linux through the persepolis git AUR package, and it belongs to the desktop application ecosystem of Python and Qt rather than to any single distribution.
read the full persepolis overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is mkdocs-material or persepolis more popular?
mkdocs-material has 27,466 GitHub stars and persepolis has 7,455. mkdocs-material has the larger community by that measure.
Are mkdocs-material and persepolis free?
Both are open source. mkdocs-material is licensed under MIT and persepolis under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between mkdocs-material and persepolis?
mkdocs-material is written in Python and persepolis in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, mkdocs-material or persepolis?
Choose mkdocs-material if you want the larger community (27,466 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose persepolis if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.