ApiNotes vs pdoc
ApiNotes
apinotes.iopdoc
pdoc.devSide by side
| Figure | ApiNotes | pdoc |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $19/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 0 |
| Spec score · API Documentation Tools | 8.3 (#4) | 7.4 (#18) |
Plans
In their own words
ApiNotes
ApiNotes turns OpenAPI and Swagger specifications into hosted interactive documentation and a changelog that alerts teams to breaking changes. It accepts OpenAPI 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2, plus Swagger 2.0, in YAML or JSON. Generated references show endpoint parameters, response schemas, code samples in more than 10 programming languages, and a Try-It-Now console. Users can paste, upload, or link a specification and publish documentation at an ApiNotes subdomain. A GitHub Action can publish an updated specification on merge, while the Team plan lists pull request comments about breaking changes. Starter is free and limited to one public API, the last 10 changelog releases, 25 subscribers, and one team member. Team costs $19 a month and includes five APIs, private docs, full changelog history, unlimited subscribers, a custom domain, and five team members. The Team plan has a 14-day trial with no credit card required. Additional APIs are listed at £5/API; Postman, Bruno, and Insomnia integrations are marked as coming soon.
pdoc
pdoc generates API documentation from Python projects and organizes it around each project's module hierarchy. Its setup documentation says no configuration is needed to begin. The tool produces standalone HTML that can be exported to files, and a built-in web server refreshes the documentation when source files change. It supports Python type annotations and recognizes Markdown, numpydoc, and Google-style docstrings, with limited reStructuredText support. Developers can customize the generated HTML templates; search runs in the browser without third-party services. Deployment guidance covers GitHub Pages, and custom HTML fragments can be embedded in content management systems or static site generators. pdoc also offers a high-level interface and can be used as a Python library. It is free and open source, compatible with Python 3.10 and newer, and available for Linux, macOS, Windows, web, and self-hosted use. HTML is its only output format, and API documentation is its principal use case. Since pdoc imports or executes the Python modules while extracting docstrings, those modules are executed during documentation generation; Sphinx is recommended for substantially more complex documentation needs.