Read the Docs vs Swagger UI

Overview

Read the Docs

Stacks72

Followers289

Votes22

Swagger UI

Stacks2.1K

Followers1.8K

Votes207

GitHub Stars28.3K

Forks9.2K

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

Introduction

In this documentation, we will compare the key differences between Read the Docs and Swagger UI. Both Read the Docs and Swagger UI are popular tools used for documenting and testing APIs. However, they have some distinct features that set them apart from each other.

User Interface:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs provides a simple and clean user interface that focuses more on the content of the documentation. It allows users to easily navigate through different sections and pages.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI, on the other hand, offers a more interactive and visually appealing user interface. It provides a live API documentation experience where users can directly interact with the API endpoints.
Documentation Format:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs primarily focuses on providing traditional text-based documentation. It allows for a detailed explanation of API endpoints, request/response examples, and code snippets.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI utilizes the OpenAPI Specification (formerly known as Swagger) to generate documentation. It focuses on API contract-first development, where the documentation is generated based on the API specification file.
API Testing Capabilities:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs does not inherently provide API testing capabilities. It is more focused on providing comprehensive and easy-to-understand documentation.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI offers built-in API testing functionality. Users can directly send requests to the API endpoints and view the responses within the Swagger UI interface.
Third-Party Integrations:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs offers integration with version control systems like GitHub, Bitbucket, and GitLab, making it easier to automatically build and deploy documentation whenever there is a change in the codebase.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI can be integrated with various development tools and frameworks such as Spring Boot, Node.js, and Django. It allows developers to generate API documentation from their codebase effortlessly.
Customization Options:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs provides limited customization options in terms of visual styling. It focuses more on consistency and readability by using a standardized theme.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI offers extensive customization options, allowing developers to customize the look and feel of the documentation according to their branding and design preferences.
API Security Documentation:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs does not have built-in support for documenting API security mechanisms such as authentication and authorization.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI includes support for documenting API security schemes such as API keys, OAuth, and JWT authentication. It allows developers to describe and test the authentication mechanisms directly within the documentation.

In summary, Read the Docs provides a simple and text-focused documentation experience, while Swagger UI offers a visually appealing interface with live API testing capabilities. Read the Docs is suitable for detailed textual documentation, while Swagger UI is best suited for API-first development and interactive documentation.

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Advice on 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

Read the Docs	Swagger UI
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
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 28.3K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 9.2K
Stacks 72	Stacks 2.1K
Followers 289	Followers 1.8K
Votes 22	Votes 207
Pros & Cons
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 Doesn't generate code snippets in different languages 1 Does not support hypermedia 1 You don’t actually get in-line error highlighting
Integrations
GitHub Bitbucket Evernote Dropbox	Node.js Git Microsoft Edge Safari Firefox Google Chrome

What are some alternatives to 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.

Apiary

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.

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.

Related Comparisons

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

Introduction

User Interface:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs provides a simple and clean user interface that focuses more on the content of the documentation. It allows users to easily navigate through different sections and pages.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI, on the other hand, offers a more interactive and visually appealing user interface. It provides a live API documentation experience where users can directly interact with the API endpoints.
Documentation Format:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs primarily focuses on providing traditional text-based documentation. It allows for a detailed explanation of API endpoints, request/response examples, and code snippets.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI utilizes the OpenAPI Specification (formerly known as Swagger) to generate documentation. It focuses on API contract-first development, where the documentation is generated based on the API specification file.
API Testing Capabilities:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs does not inherently provide API testing capabilities. It is more focused on providing comprehensive and easy-to-understand documentation.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI offers built-in API testing functionality. Users can directly send requests to the API endpoints and view the responses within the Swagger UI interface.
Third-Party Integrations:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs offers integration with version control systems like GitHub, Bitbucket, and GitLab, making it easier to automatically build and deploy documentation whenever there is a change in the codebase.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI can be integrated with various development tools and frameworks such as Spring Boot, Node.js, and Django. It allows developers to generate API documentation from their codebase effortlessly.
Customization Options:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs provides limited customization options in terms of visual styling. It focuses more on consistency and readability by using a standardized theme.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI offers extensive customization options, allowing developers to customize the look and feel of the documentation according to their branding and design preferences.
API Security Documentation:
- Read the Docs: Read the Docs does not have built-in support for documenting API security mechanisms such as authentication and authorization.
- Swagger UI: Swagger UI includes support for documenting API security schemes such as API keys, OAuth, and JWT authentication. It allows developers to describe and test the authentication mechanisms directly within the documentation.

Read the Docs vs Swagger UI

Overview

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