head to head · open source
redoc vs prest
redoc has 25,915 GitHub stars, 2,397 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. prest has 4,619 stars, 322 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. redoc leads on adoption by 461% (25,915 vs 4,619 stars). redoc is written in TypeScript under MIT; prest is written in Go under MIT. redoc has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, prest 7%. prest 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
| redoc | prest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 4.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 322 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick redoc if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick prest if
- You want the prest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and prest fits your workflow better
About redoc
Redoc is an open source tool for generating API reference documentation from OpenAPI definitions, formerly known as Swagger. It lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, ships under the MIT license, and is published on npm as the redoc package. By default it renders a responsive three panel layout: a left panel holding the search bar and navigation menu, a central panel holding the documentation itself, and a right panel showing request and response examples.
read the full redoc overview →
About prest
pREST (PostgreSQL + REST) is a production ready, MIT licensed Go service that exposes an instant REST API and a read only Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint on top of any existing or new PostgreSQL database, built for teams that want CRUD, custom SQL routes, authentication and access control without hand writing a backend.
read the full prest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is redoc or prest more popular?
redoc has 25,915 GitHub stars and prest has 4,619. redoc has the larger community by that measure.
Are redoc and prest free?
Both are open source. redoc is licensed under MIT and prest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between redoc and prest?
redoc is written in TypeScript and prest in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, redoc or prest?
Choose redoc if you want the larger community (25,915 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose prest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.