head to head · open source
redoc vs Scalar
redoc has 25,915 GitHub stars, 2,397 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Scalar has 16,140 stars, 938 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped today. redoc leads on adoption by 61% (25,915 vs 16,140 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 | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 938 |
| 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
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 Scalar
Scalar is open source API documentation and testing platform. It lives in TypeScript ecosystem, with Vue in topics, and targets REST API, OpenAPI, Swagger, API client, docs, http client, reference work. License is MIT. It gives interactive API reference from OpenAPI/Swagger documents, plus built in API testing tool. It also gives offline first API client built for OpenAPI.
read the full Scalar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is redoc or Scalar more popular?
redoc has 25,915 GitHub stars and Scalar has 16,140. 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 (25,915 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Scalar if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.