Fern vs Scalar
Fern
buildwithfern.com
Scalar
scalar.comSide by side
| Figure | Fern | Scalar |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $150/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 7 |
| Spec score · API Documentation Tools | 8.9 (#1) | 8.8 (#2) |
| Spec score · Knowledge base software | 8.8 (#17) | 8.8 (#19) |
| Spec score · Technical Writing Platforms | 8.8 (#4) | 8.8 (#5) |
| Spec score · Api 1 | 8.9 (#4) | 8.8 (#5) |
| Spec score · Api Docs | 8.8 (#5) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Company | Fern identifies itself as Birch Solutions, Inc., a Postman company, and says it was born in Brooklyn, New York. | The company describes itself as a team of 10 engineers and designers focused on accessibility, API-first work, and open source. |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Listed integrations include PostHog, Google Analytics, Segment, Mixpanel, FullStory, Intercom, Postman, and Context7. | Scalar documents more than 35 framework integrations, including Express, Fastify, Hono, NestJS, Next.js, FastAPI, Django, Rails, Laravel, ASP.NET Core, Spring Boot, Go and Rust. |
| Public API | Fern exposes a REST API for Ask Fern configuration, custom context and FAQs, usage, and analytics, authenticated with organization API keys. | Scalar publishes a versioned platform API and a TypeScript SDK installed with npm add @scalar/sdk; personal tokens exchange for 12-hour bearer access tokens. |
| Rating on G2 | 5.0 out of 5 from 1 review. | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews; the displayed listing is categorized as a 409A valuation provider rather than an API-software profile. |
| SDK generation | Fern generates strongly typed client libraries with IDE support, schema validation, and idiomatic method names. | The SDK Generator creates idiomatic, type-safe client libraries from an OpenAPI document and can publish through repositories using pull requests. |
| SDK languages | SDK generation supports TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, C#, PHP, Ruby, Swift, and Rust. | Generally available SDK targets are TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, Kotlin, Ruby and CLI; C#, PHP, Rust, Swift, Dart and C++ are experimental. |
| Security | Fern's trust center lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA and provides access requests for its SOC 2 report, penetration test summary, and information security policy. | Scalar states that it has received a SOC 2 Type 1 report and maintains GDPR-compliant privacy practices. |
| Self-hosting | Fern lists self-hosting as an Enterprise capability for deploying on dedicated infrastructure. | The API Reference renderer and client can run offline, be embedded in applications or self-hosted; the hosted SDK generator is not open source. |
| Support | The Enterprise plan includes dedicated support and an uptime SLA. | Enterprise includes priority support, SLAs, migration services, and a dedicated Slack or Teams channel. |
| What it does | Fern turns API definitions and Markdown into hosted documentation sites, SDKs, and command-line tools. | Scalar turns OpenAPI or AsyncAPI descriptions into interactive API references, documentation sites, API clients, SDKs, registries and hosted MCP servers. |
Plans
Scalar
- FreeFree
- Pro$150 a month
- Business$600 a month
- FreeFree
- Pro$150 a month
- Business$600 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Scalar
Scalar is a set of API products for documentation, SDK generation, API registries, API requests, and MCP server use. Scalar Docs combines product guides and interactive API references generated from OpenAPI documents in a developer portal. Teams can write in Markdown or MDX, use GitHub content, preview pull requests, and publish through a CLI or after a merge. The SDK Generator builds idiomatic, type-safe client libraries from OpenAPI documents and can publish them through repository pull requests. Registry stores and versions OpenAPI and AsyncAPI documents, JSON Schema, and Spectral rules with Git integration. The open-source API Client works offline for sending requests, organizing collections, and testing APIs from OpenAPI documents. Scalar supports hosted and self-hosted deployment. Its Free plan is free and includes up to three APIs, one SDK with up to 25 endpoints, one editor seat, and 50 Agent Scalar credits. Pro is $150 a month; Business is $600 a month. Scalar states that it has received a SOC 2 Type 1 report and maintains GDPR-compliant privacy practices.