head to head · open source
redoc vs Scalar
redoc has 25,998 GitHub stars, 2,406 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Scalar has 16,364 stars, 964 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped yesterday. redoc leads on adoption by 59% (25,998 vs 16,364 stars). redoc is written in TypeScript under MIT; Scalar is written in TypeScript under MIT. redoc has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Scalar 6%. Scalar was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (openapi, openapi3, swagger), 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
| redoc | Scalar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 16K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 964 |
| 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 Scalar if
- You want the Scalar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Scalar fits your workflow better
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 →
About Scalar
Scalar Interactive API Reference from OpenAPI/Swagger └ Renders OpenAPI/Swagger documents └ Comes with an API testing tool └ Doesn't look like 2011 └ Generates code examples for many languages & frameworks └ Integrates with your favorite framework └ Try Demo An offline first API Client built for OpenAPI └ Free and open source └ First class OpenAPI/Swagger support └ Integrates with dozens of API Frameworks (Elysia, Hono, FastAPI, etc) └ Syncs with your favorite server framework (Watch Mode) └ Has environment variables, dynamic parameters and everything └ Try It in the Browser └ Download (Windows, MacOS, Linux)…
read the full Scalar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is redoc or Scalar more popular?
redoc has 25,998 GitHub stars and Scalar has 16,364. redoc has the larger community by that measure.
Are redoc and Scalar free?
Both are open source. redoc is licensed under MIT and Scalar under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between redoc and Scalar?
redoc is written in TypeScript and Scalar 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, redoc or Scalar?
Choose redoc if you want the larger community (25,998 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Scalar if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.