MkDocs vs Sphinx
MkDocs
mkdocs.org
Sphinx
sphinx-doc.orgSide by side
| Figure | MkDocs | Sphinx |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Documentation Generators | 7.6 (#17) | 8.2 (#7) |
| Spec score · Developer Documentation Software | 7.5 (#18) | 8.2 (#12) |
| Spec score · Technical Documentation Software | 7.4 (#29) | 8.1 (#18) |
| Spec score · Knowledge base software | 7.4 (#116) | 8.2 (#61) |
| Spec score · Technical Writing Platforms | 7.5 (#23) | 8.1 (#16) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Installation | MkDocs is installed with the Python package manager using pip install mkdocs. | Sphinx is a Python application installable through PyPI, Conda, Linux package managers, Homebrew or MacPorts, Chocolatey, Docker, or from source. |
| Integrations | MkDocs documentation can be deployed to GitHub Pages and hosted on Amazon S3. | Built-in extensions include GitHub Pages publishing, Graphviz graphs, and intersphinx links to other projects’ documentation. |
| License | MkDocs is distributed under the BSD license, which permits redistribution and use in source and binary forms subject to its conditions. | The project states that its code is released under the two-clause BSD license. |
| Purpose | MkDocs is a static site generator geared toward building project documentation from Markdown and a single YAML configuration file. | Sphinx generates technical documentation from structured text. |
| Support | The project directs users to GitHub Discussions and GitHub Issues for help. | The project directs users to Stack Overflow, GitHub Discussions, GitHub Issues, or the sphinx-users mailing list for questions and problem reports. |
| Themes | MkDocs includes built-in mkdocs and readthedocs themes and supports third-party or custom themes. | Sphinx includes built-in and third-party HTML themes and supports custom themes. |
Plans
In their own words
MkDocs
MkDocs is a static site generator for project documentation written in Markdown, with project settings held in a YAML file. It produces static HTML that can be published to GitHub Pages, Amazon S3, or another static-file host. Its development server provides a local preview and refreshes it when documentation changes; generated sites also include search that can link to matching sections. The command-line tools cover creating a project, serving a preview, building the site, checking dependencies, and deploying to GitHub Pages. MkDocs uses Python-Markdown and requires a recent Python version and pip. The built-in mkdocs and readthedocs themes are available alongside third-party and custom themes, while plugins, Markdown extensions, and configuration options allow further changes. The built-in mkdocs theme supports several locales, including English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Chinese. MkDocs is free, available for Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted use, and distributed under the BSD license. Third-party themes and plugins run their authors’ code without sandboxing.
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.