head to head · open source
storybook vs markdoc
storybook has 91,081 GitHub stars, 10,452 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. markdoc has 8,476 stars, 252 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. storybook leads on adoption by 975% (91,081 vs 8,476 stars). storybook is written in TypeScript under MIT; markdoc is written in TypeScript under MIT. storybook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, markdoc 3%. storybook was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (documentation, react), 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
| storybook | markdoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 8.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 252 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick storybook if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick markdoc if
- You want the markdoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and markdoc fits your workflow better
About storybook
Storybook is an open source, MIT licensed frontend workshop, written in TypeScript, for building, documenting, and testing UI components and pages in isolation, aimed at frontend engineers and design system teams working in React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, React Native, HTML, and other supported renderers.
read the full storybook overview →
About markdoc
Markdoc is an MIT licensed, Markdown based authoring framework and toolchain written in TypeScript, built for teams that need custom documentation sites and content experiences on top of a syntax their writers already know.
read the full markdoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is storybook or markdoc more popular?
storybook has 91,081 GitHub stars and markdoc has 8,476. storybook has the larger community by that measure.
Are storybook and markdoc free?
Both are open source. storybook is licensed under MIT and markdoc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between storybook and markdoc?
storybook is written in TypeScript and markdoc 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, storybook or markdoc?
Choose storybook if you want the larger community (91,081 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose markdoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.