head to head · open source
OpenAPI-Specification vs redoc
OpenAPI-Specification has 31,291 GitHub stars, 9,145 forks, 80 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. redoc has 25,998 stars, 2,406 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. OpenAPI-Specification leads on adoption by 20% (31,291 vs 25,998 stars). OpenAPI-Specification is written in Markdown under Apache-2.0; redoc is written in TypeScript under MIT. OpenAPI-Specification has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, redoc 9%. redoc was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (openapi, openapi-specification), 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
| OpenAPI-Specification | redoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 26K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Markdown | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-22 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenAPI-Specification if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Markdown
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick redoc if
- You want the redoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and redoc fits your workflow better
About OpenAPI-Specification
The OpenAPI Specification The OpenAPI Specification is a community driven open specification within the OpenAPI Initiative, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) defines a standard, programming language agnostic interface description for HTTP APIs. This allows both humans and computers to discover and understand the capabilities of a service without requiring access to source code, additional documentation, or inspection of network traffic. When properly defined via OpenAPI, a consumer can understand and interact with the remote service with a minimal amount of implementation…
read the full OpenAPI-Specification overview →
About redoc
Learn what's coming in Redoc 3.x → Generate beautiful API documentation from OpenAPI About Redoc Redoc is an open source tool for generating documentation from OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) definitions. By default Redoc offers a three panel, responsive layout: The left panel contains a search bar and navigation menu. The central panel contains the documentation. The right panel contains request and response examples. Live demo If you want to see how Redoc renders your OpenAPI definition, you can try it out online at A version of the Swagger Petstore API is displayed by default. To test it with your own OpenAPI…
read the full redoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenAPI-Specification or redoc more popular?
OpenAPI-Specification has 31,291 GitHub stars and redoc has 25,998. OpenAPI-Specification has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenAPI-Specification and redoc free?
Both are open source. OpenAPI-Specification is licensed under Apache-2.0 and redoc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenAPI-Specification and redoc?
OpenAPI-Specification is written in Markdown and redoc in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenAPI-Specification or redoc?
Choose OpenAPI-Specification if you want the larger community (31,291 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose redoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.