Scalar vs Theneo
Scalar
scalar.com
Theneo
theneo.ioSide by side
| Figure | Scalar | Theneo |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $150/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 8 |
| Spec score · API Documentation Tools | 8.8 (#2) | 8.6 (#3) |
| Spec score · Api Docs | 8.9 (#4) | 8.6 (#6) |
| Headquarters | The company's terms list API Documentation Inc. (doing business as Scalar) at 2812 Dewdney Ave., British Columbia, Canada. | Seattle, Washington, United States |
| Integrations | 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. | Documented integrations include GitHub or GitLab synchronization, Postman import, Bitbucket synchronization, Slack and Microsoft Teams support, Okta and Microsoft Entra ID. |
| Licence | The Scalar API Reference and API Client repositories are publicly available under the MIT licence. | The public Theneo CLI and SDK repository is MIT licensed, while the hosted Theneo platform is proprietary. |
| Praise: usability | Independent Softwr review highlights the integrated request client, generated code samples and reduced documentation drift from OpenAPI-driven generation. | Product Hunt reviewers repeatedly praise fast documentation generation, polished output, ease of use and developer time savings. |
| Product | Scalar provides API documentation, SDK generation, API registry, API client, and MCP server products built around APIs. | Theneo is a developer portal platform for API references, guides, changelogs, and private customer portals. |
| Public API | 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. | The sample API exposes REST endpoints for creating, retrieving, updating and deleting API documentation and uses an Api-Key header. |
| Security | Scalar states that it has received a SOC 2 Type 1 report and maintains GDPR-compliant privacy practices. | Theneo says it maintains SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and ISO 9001 certifications and GDPR compliance. |
| Self-hosting | The API Reference renderer and client can run offline, be embedded in applications or self-hosted; the hosted SDK generator is not open source. | Enterprise customers can deploy the complete platform with Docker and Kubernetes on cloud, on-premises or approved private infrastructure. |
| Support | Enterprise includes priority support, SLAs, migration services, and a dedicated Slack or Teams channel. | The pricing page lists in-app and email support, Slack 1:1 support, a dedicated customer success manager, and custom SLA in its plan comparison. |
| What it does | Scalar turns OpenAPI or AsyncAPI descriptions into interactive API references, documentation sites, API clients, SDKs, registries and hosted MCP servers. | Theneo generates and publishes interactive, branded API documentation and developer portals from API specifications. |
Plans
Scalar
- FreeFree
- Pro$150 a month
- Business$600 a month
- FreeFree
- Pro$150 a month
- Business$600 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
Theneo
- Starter PackageFree
- Business$120 a month
- Business (annual)$120 a year
- Business (monthly)$150 a month
- Growth$400 a month
- Growth (annual)$400 a year
- Growth (monthly)$450 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.
Theneo
Theneo is a developer portal for publishing API references, guides, changelogs, and customer-specific private portals. It creates interactive API documentation from OpenAPI files, Postman collections, or Git connections, with code samples, live testing, and CI/CD sync. Supported formats include REST, AsyncAPI, SOAP, GraphQL, and gRPC. Teams can co-edit, comment, review changes, track versions, and roll back. AI tools include documentation generation, Ask AI answers, release summaries, MCP, and llms.txt support. Private portals can control API visibility by customer and include SSO options and custom branding. Integrations include GitHub and Bitbucket sync, a VS Code extension, Postman sync, CLI, SDK, and API access. Theneo lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and ISO 9001 certifications and GDPR compliance; it describes AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.2 or later in transit, and seven-day point-in-time backups. A free plan is available; Business starts at $120/month billed annually. Enterprise includes self-hosting on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or on-premises Kubernetes.