Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Gitbook

218
349
+ 1
10
Read the Docs

70
289
+ 1
22
Add tool

Gitbook vs Read the Docs: What are the differences?

Gitbook and Read the Docs are both popular documentation platforms that provide a way to create and host documentation for software projects. While they serve the same purpose, there are several key differences between the two.

  1. Integration with Version Control: Gitbook offers direct integration with Git repositories, allowing users to sync their documentation with changes made in their codebase. On the other hand, Read the Docs requires a separate build process to generate and host documentation, which can be less seamless.

  2. Customization Options: Gitbook provides a more flexible and customizable platform for documentation. Users can easily customize the layout, design, and structure of their documentation to match their brand or project needs. In contrast, Read the Docs has a more limited set of customization options, mainly focusing on the content itself rather than the overall look and feel.

  3. Hosting Options: Gitbook offers both cloud hosting and self-hosting options, giving users more control over their documentation hosting. Users can choose to host their documentation on Gitbook's servers or host it on their own infrastructure. Read the Docs, on the other hand, primarily focuses on cloud hosting and does not provide a self-hosting option.

  4. Collaboration Features: Gitbook includes collaboration features that allow multiple contributors to work together on the documentation. It provides tools for real-time collaboration, version history, and commenting, making it easier for teams to collaborate on the documentation. Read the Docs, on the other hand, lacks these built-in collaboration features.

  5. Inline Code Samples: Gitbook supports the inclusion of inline code samples directly in the documentation, making it easier to demonstrate and explain complex code concepts. Read the Docs, while it does support code examples, does not offer the same level of integration for inline code samples.

  6. Search Functionality: Gitbook provides a robust search functionality, allowing users to easily search through the documentation for specific keywords or phrases. This can be particularly useful for larger documentation projects. Read the Docs also offers search functionality, but it may not be as advanced or customizable as Gitbook's search features.

In summary, Gitbook offers better integration with version control, more customization options, flexible hosting options, collaboration features, support for inline code samples, and advanced search functionality compared to Read the Docs.

Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
Learn More
Pros of Gitbook
Pros of Read the Docs
  • 6
    Prueba
  • 4
    Integrated high-quality editor
  • 13
    GitHub integration
  • 7
    Free for public repos
  • 2
    Automated Builds

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Gitbook
Cons of Read the Docs
  • 1
    No longer Git or Open
  • 1
    Just sync with GitHub
    Be the first to leave a con

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is Gitbook?

    It is a modern documentation platform where teams can document everything from products, to APIs and internal knowledge-bases. It is a place to think and track ideas for you & your team.

    What is Read the Docs?

    It hosts documentation, making it fully searchable and easy to find. You can import your docs using any major version control system, including Mercurial, Git, Subversion, and Bazaar.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Gitbook?
    What companies use Read the Docs?
    Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
    Learn More

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with Gitbook?
    What tools integrate with Read the Docs?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    What are some alternatives to Gitbook and Read the Docs?
    Sphinx
    It lets you either batch index and search data stored in an SQL database, NoSQL storage, or just files quickly and easily — or index and search data on the fly, working with it pretty much as with a database server.
    Confluence
    Capture the knowledge that's too often lost in email inboxes and shared network drives in Confluence instead – where it's easy to find, use, and update.
    Jekyll
    Think of Jekyll as a file-based CMS, without all the complexity. Jekyll takes your content, renders Markdown and Liquid templates, and spits out a complete, static website ready to be served by Apache, Nginx or another web server. Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages, which you can use to host sites right from your GitHub repositories.
    Google Docs
    It is a word processor included as part of a free, web-based software office suite offered by Google. It brings your documents to life with smart editing and styling tools to help you easily format text and paragraphs.
    GitHub Pages
    Public webpages hosted directly from your GitHub repository. Just edit, push, and your changes are live.
    See all alternatives