DocFX vs Docsify
DocFX
dotnet.github.io
Docsify
docsify.js.orgSide by side
| Figure | DocFX | Docsify |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Documentation Generators | 8.2 (#6) | 7.5 (#21) |
| Spec score · Technical Writing Platforms | 8.3 (#9) | 7.5 (#22) |
| Spec score · Developer Documentation Software | 8.2 (#11) | 7.4 (#19) |
| Spec score · Knowledge base software | 7.7 (#102) | 6.9 (#135) |
| Customization | Users can customize templates with CSS, JavaScript, Mustache templates, and metadata settings. | The project lists multiple themes and a plugin API, and its quick start shows optional plugins loaded from a CDN. |
| Purpose | DocFX builds technical documentation sites from .NET assemblies, XML code comments, REST API Swagger files, and Markdown. | Docsify turns Markdown files into a documentation website that loads and parses the files in the browser without a build process. |
Plans
In their own words
DocFX
DocFX is a free static site generator for technical documentation. It builds documentation from .NET assemblies, XML code comments, REST API Swagger files and Markdown, and can produce rendered HTML pages, JSON models or PDFs. Static HTML output is placed in the `_site` folder for publication to hosting services such as GitHub Pages. DocFX can also be used as a NuGet library through the `Docfx.App` package and .NET APIs. It parses CommonMark-compliant Markdown with Markdig and supports additional extensions. Built-in templates include a modern option with dark mode and customization settings; users can also customize templates with CSS, JavaScript, Mustache templates and metadata. DocFX can generate git links for GitHub, GitLab, Azure Pipelines, AppVeyor, TeamCity and Jenkins. It requires .NET SDK 8.0 or higher. Node.js v20 or higher is optional generally, but required to create PDFs. Native reference documentation generation covers .NET and REST APIs; other languages need a custom API docs converter. PlantUML diagrams use a remote server by default, with local rendering available as a setting.