Apiary vs Read the Docs vs Swagger UI

Overview

Apiary

Stacks241

Followers325

Votes109

Read the Docs

Stacks72

Followers289

Votes22

Swagger UI

Stacks2.1K

Followers1.8K

Votes207

GitHub Stars28.3K

Forks9.2K

Apiary vs Read the Docs vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Introduction

When comparing Apiary, Read the Docs, and Swagger UI, there are key differences that set them apart. Each platform serves a unique purpose in the world of API documentation and development.

Hosted vs. Self-hosted Platforms: Apiary is a hosted platform, meaning it provides cloud-based services for API documentation. Read the Docs and Swagger UI, on the other hand, are self-hosted platforms where users can install the software on their own servers to create and host their documentation.
Automatic API Mocking: One of the standout features of Apiary is its automatic API mocking capability, allowing users to simulate the behavior of an API before it is implemented. This feature is not present in Read the Docs or Swagger UI, making Apiary a valuable tool for testing and prototyping APIs.
Markdown vs. OpenAPI Specification: Read the Docs primarily uses Markdown for documenting APIs, while Swagger UI relies on the OpenAPI Specification (formerly Swagger Specification) to describe the structure of APIs. Apiary supports both Markdown and API Blueprint, a lightweight markup language specifically designed for documenting APIs.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Apiary offers robust collaboration tools, such as team-based permissions and version control, making it easy for multiple team members to work on API documentation together. While Read the Docs and Swagger UI support collaboration to some extent, they do not provide the same level of built-in features for team-based documentation workflows.
Interactive Documentation: Swagger UI is known for its interactive and visually appealing documentation, which allows users to explore and interact with APIs directly in the browser. While Read the Docs and Apiary also offer interactive elements, Swagger UI excels in providing a seamless and dynamic user experience for API consumers.
Community and Support: Read the Docs has a large and active community of users and contributors, making it a popular choice for open-source projects and software documentation. Apiary and Swagger UI also have dedicated user communities, but they may not be as extensive or established as the community surrounding Read the Docs.

In Summary, Apiary, Read the Docs, and Swagger UI have distinct strengths and features that cater to different needs in API documentation and development.

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Advice on Apiary, Read the Docs, Swagger UI

StackShare

May 1, 2019

Needs advice

From a StackShare Community member: "I just started working for a start-up and we are in desperate need of better documentation for our API. Currently our API docs is in a README.md file. We are evaluating Postman and Swagger UI. Since there are many options and I was wondering what other StackSharers would recommend?"

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Detailed Comparison

Apiary	Read the Docs	Swagger UI
It takes more than a simple HTML page to thrill your API users. The right tools take weeks of development. Weeks that apiary.io saves.	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.	Swagger UI is a dependency-free collection of HTML, Javascript, and CSS assets that dynamically generate beautiful documentation and sandbox from a Swagger-compliant API
Documentation- Organized around resources, code samples with syntax highlight, easy to explore.;Inspector- Users can make API calls through apiary.io, we show them how they differ from documentation.;Community- Opensource your API documentation on GitHub. The right channel between developers on both side of the API.;Always Tested [closed alpha]- The documentation is always watching your real API and tells you whenever it gets out of sync.;Server Mock- The fastest way to static API prototype—just ‘document’ your future API and it’s up. 2 minutes to Hello World.;GitHub Integration- Store the API Blueprint in your repository, everything gets updated as soon as you commit a new version.;I/O Validation- Add a JSON Schema to the API Blueprint and the proxy will help your API users understand implementation of data structures better.;Customization [closed alpha]- The documentation and tools can be seamlessly placed on your website and gray-labeled so the friction is close to none.	Github and Bitbucket Integration;Auto-updating;Internationalization;Canonical URLs; Versions;Version Control Support Matrix;PDF Generation;Search;Alternate Domains	The UI works in any development environment, be it locally or in the web;Allow end developers to effortlessly interact and try out every single operation your API exposes for easy consumption;Quickly find and work with resources and endpoints with neatly categorized documentation;Cater to every possible scenario with Swagger UI working in all major browsers
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 28.3K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 9.2K
Stacks 241	Stacks 72	Stacks 2.1K
Followers 325	Followers 289	Followers 1.8K
Votes 109	Votes 22	Votes 207
Pros & Cons
Pros 29 Easy to use 19 Free to use 12 Traffic inspector 11 Free 10 Collaboration	Pros 13 GitHub integration 7 Free for public repos 2 Automated Builds	Pros 49 Open Source 34 Can execute api calls from the documentation 29 Free to use 19 Customizable 14 Easy to implement in .Net Cons 3 Need to learn YAML and RAML 2 Documentation doesn't look that good 1 You don’t actually get in-line error highlighting 1 Does not support hypermedia 1 Doesn't generate code snippets in different languages
Integrations
GitHub	GitHub Bitbucket Evernote Dropbox	Node.js Git Microsoft Edge Safari Firefox Google Chrome

What are some alternatives to Apiary, Read the Docs, Swagger UI?

Postman

It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide.

ReadMe.io

It is an easy-to-use tool to help you build out documentation! Each documentation site that you publish is a project where there is space for documentation, interactive API reference guides, a changelog, and much more.

Docusaurus

Docusaurus is a project for easily building, deploying, and maintaining open source project websites.

Gelato.io

Gelato.io is a SaaS tool for creating API documentation and developer portals.

MireDot

Generate REST documentation directly from your Java source code. This ensures always up-to-date and accurate documentation with minimal effort.

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.

Slate

Slate helps you create beautiful API documentation. Think of it as an intelligent, responsive documentation template for your API.

jsdoc

JSDoc 3 is an API documentation generator for JavaScript, similar to JavaDoc or PHPDoc. You add documentation comments directly to your source code, right along side the code itself. The JSDoc Tool will scan your source code, and generate a complete HTML documentation website for you.

Ardoq

Ardoq's out of the box visualizations are automatically created in real-time. All changes and relationships are visualized simultaneously and are context sensitive. With Ardoq, you can see your documentation in the perspectives that best suit your needs.

Docbloc

It is a REST API documentation management platform. It simplifies the creation and distribution of REST API documentation, leaving you more time to build what matters.

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Apiary vs Read the Docs vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Introduction

When comparing Apiary, Read the Docs, and Swagger UI, there are key differences that set them apart. Each platform serves a unique purpose in the world of API documentation and development.

Hosted vs. Self-hosted Platforms: Apiary is a hosted platform, meaning it provides cloud-based services for API documentation. Read the Docs and Swagger UI, on the other hand, are self-hosted platforms where users can install the software on their own servers to create and host their documentation.
Automatic API Mocking: One of the standout features of Apiary is its automatic API mocking capability, allowing users to simulate the behavior of an API before it is implemented. This feature is not present in Read the Docs or Swagger UI, making Apiary a valuable tool for testing and prototyping APIs.
Markdown vs. OpenAPI Specification: Read the Docs primarily uses Markdown for documenting APIs, while Swagger UI relies on the OpenAPI Specification (formerly Swagger Specification) to describe the structure of APIs. Apiary supports both Markdown and API Blueprint, a lightweight markup language specifically designed for documenting APIs.
Collaboration and Teamwork: Apiary offers robust collaboration tools, such as team-based permissions and version control, making it easy for multiple team members to work on API documentation together. While Read the Docs and Swagger UI support collaboration to some extent, they do not provide the same level of built-in features for team-based documentation workflows.
Interactive Documentation: Swagger UI is known for its interactive and visually appealing documentation, which allows users to explore and interact with APIs directly in the browser. While Read the Docs and Apiary also offer interactive elements, Swagger UI excels in providing a seamless and dynamic user experience for API consumers.
Community and Support: Read the Docs has a large and active community of users and contributors, making it a popular choice for open-source projects and software documentation. Apiary and Swagger UI also have dedicated user communities, but they may not be as extensive or established as the community surrounding Read the Docs.

In Summary, Apiary, Read the Docs, and Swagger UI have distinct strengths and features that cater to different needs in API documentation and development.