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  5. Apiary vs ReadMe.io vs Swagger UI

Apiary vs ReadMe.io vs Swagger UI

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Apiary
Apiary
Stacks241
Followers325
Votes109
ReadMe.io
ReadMe.io
Stacks114
Followers365
Votes69
Swagger UI
Swagger UI
Stacks2.1K
Followers1.8K
Votes207
GitHub Stars28.3K
Forks9.2K

Apiary vs ReadMe.io vs Swagger UI: What are the differences?

Introduction

This document compares Apiary, ReadMe.io, and Swagger UI in terms of key differences.

  1. Ease of Use: Apiary provides a simple and straightforward interface for designing, documenting, and testing APIs. It offers a user-friendly editor with features like live preview and auto-generated documentation. ReadMe.io also offers a user-friendly interface with an easy-to-use editor and live preview options. Swagger UI, on the other hand, requires developers to write code in YAML or JSON format, which may be more complex for beginners.
  2. Customization Options: Apiary allows users to customize their API documentation and styling by providing a range of templates and themes. ReadMe.io also offers customization options, allowing users to add custom CSS and JavaScript to personalize their documentation. Swagger UI, however, has less customizable options and relies on predefined templates.
  3. Collaboration Tools: Apiary provides collaboration features such as team management, version control, commenting, and change tracking. It allows multiple team members to work together on API documentation. ReadMe.io offers similar collaboration features with the ability to assign roles and permissions to team members. Swagger UI, on the other hand, focuses more on documentation display rather than collaboration.
  4. Integration Capabilities: Apiary integrates well with popular development tools and platforms, including GitHub, Slack, and continuous integration systems. It provides seamless integration with these tools to streamline the API development process. Similarly, ReadMe.io offers integrations with various tools and platforms, allowing users to manage their API documentation within their existing workflows. Swagger UI, however, primarily focuses on rendering API documentation and does not offer extensive integration options.
  5. Mocking and Testing Support: Apiary provides built-in mocking and testing capabilities, allowing developers to simulate API responses and test their APIs directly within the platform. ReadMe.io also offers similar mocking and testing functionalities, enabling developers to test their APIs without the need for additional tools. Swagger UI, on the other hand, does not have built-in mocking and testing features and requires external tools for API testing.
  6. Pricing Model: Apiary follows a subscription-based pricing model with different plans available for individuals, teams, and enterprises, offering various features and support options. ReadMe.io also has a subscription-based pricing model with different plans catering to different needs. Swagger UI, however, is an open-source tool and is free to use, making it a more cost-effective option for smaller projects.

In summary, Apiary and ReadMe.io offer user-friendly interfaces, customization options, collaboration tools, integration capabilities, mocking and testing support, and subscription-based pricing models. Swagger UI, on the other hand, focuses on rendering API documentation, has less customization options, limited collaboration features, no built-in mocking/testing support, and is free to use.

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Advice on Apiary, ReadMe.io, Swagger UI

StackShare
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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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Apiary
Apiary
ReadMe.io
ReadMe.io
Swagger UI
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 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.

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.
Collaboration - Crowdsource your docs! Users can keep docs current by suggesting changes.;API Explorer - Let users play with your API right inside the documentation.;GitHub Sync - Keep auto-generated reference docs synced with your actual code.;Editor - Markdown-based drag-and-drop editor makes documentation almost fun.;Theme Builder - Easily create a beautiful dev community that matches your brand.;Support - Let users ask questions and request features in the support forums.;Versioning - Maintaining old or testing beta versions of your docs is a breeze!;Application Keys - Your users can view their application keys embedded right in the docs.
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
114
Stacks
2.1K
Followers
325
Followers
365
Followers
1.8K
Votes
109
Votes
69
Votes
207
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 29
    Easy to use
  • 19
    Free to use
  • 12
    Traffic inspector
  • 11
    Free
  • 10
    Collaboration
Pros
  • 18
    Great UI
  • 15
    Easy
  • 10
    Cute mascot
  • 10
    Customizable
  • 8
    Looks great and is fun to use
Cons
  • 4
    Support is awful
  • 3
    No backup and restore capability
  • 2
    Full of bugs
  • 2
    Document structure is severely restricted
  • 2
    Important parts of the CSS are locked
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
GitHub
GitHub
Node.js
Node.js
Git
Git
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge
Safari
Safari
Firefox
Firefox
Google Chrome
Google Chrome

What are some alternatives to Apiary, ReadMe.io, Swagger UI?

Postman

Postman

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

Docusaurus

Docusaurus

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

Read the Docs

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.

Gelato.io

Gelato.io

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

MireDot

MireDot

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

Gitbook

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

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

jsdoc

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

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

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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