Asciidoctor vs Sphinx
Asciidoctor
asciidoctor.org
Sphinx
sphinx-doc.orgSide by side
| Figure | Asciidoctor | Sphinx |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Documentation Generators | 8.9 (#1) | 8.2 (#7) |
| Founded | 2012 | 2007 |
| Integrations | The project ecosystem includes Maven and Gradle plugins, browser extensions, an IntelliJ plugin, and tools such as Asciidoctor Diagram. | Built-in extensions include GitHub Pages publishing, Graphviz graphs, and intersphinx links to other projects’ documentation. |
| License | The processor is open source software available under the MIT license. | The project states that its code is released under the two-clause BSD license. |
| Output formats | The core processor includes HTML 5, DocBook 5 and man page converters; PDF and EPUB 3 converters are provided separately. | Sphinx generates HTML, LaTeX for PDF, ePub, Texinfo and other documentation formats. |
| Purpose | Asciidoctor parses AsciiDoc source and converts it into publishable formats such as HTML 5 and PDF. | Sphinx generates technical documentation from structured text. |
| Support | The documentation directs users seeking real-time community support to the project chat’s #users stream. | The project directs users to Stack Overflow, GitHub Discussions, GitHub Issues, or the sphinx-users mailing list for questions and problem reports. |
Plans
In their own words
Asciidoctor
Asciidoctor is a free, open-source text processor and publishing toolchain for converting AsciiDoc files or strings into formats such as HTML5, DocBook, PDF, EPUB 3 and manual pages. Its core includes converters for HTML5, DocBook 5 and man pages; PDF and EPUB 3 conversion comes from separate gems. Documents can be processed through a command-line interface or Ruby API. Asciidoctor runs with Ruby, on the JVM through AsciidoctorJ, or in JavaScript environments through Asciidoctor.js, and supports Linux, macOS and Windows. The wider ecosystem includes Maven and Gradle plugins, browser and editor extensions, and diagram tools. Default HTML output includes a stylesheet and integrations such as Font Awesome, highlight.js, Rouge, Pygments and MathJax. It is distributed as a RubyGem, Docker image, Linux packages and macOS packages, and is licensed under MIT. Its security modes include SECURE, SAFE, SERVER and UNSAFE; safe modes do not sanitize generated output or provide a comprehensive security framework.
Sphinx
Sphinx is a free Python application that generates technical documentation from structured text. Authors can use reStructuredText or MyST Markdown; Markdown requires installing MyST-Parser separately. Built-in builders produce HTML, LaTeX for PDF, ePub, manual pages, Texinfo, and plain text. References can link sections, figures, tables, citations, glossaries, and code objects within one project or across projects. The autodoc extension imports documented modules and includes material from their docstrings. Themes and extensions, both built-in and third-party, add options such as diagrams, doctests, and API documentation. Other built-in extensions provide GitHub Pages publishing, Graphviz graphs, and intersphinx links. Sphinx also supports gettext-based translation and full-text search. It can be installed through Python and platform package managers, Docker, or from source, then deployed to services such as Read the Docs, GitHub Pages, GitLab Pages, Netlify, or self-hosted servers. Its code is released under the two-clause BSD license, and the project is community supported.