mdBook VS MkDocs

Compare mdBook vs MkDocs and see what are their differences.

mdBook

Create book from markdown files. Like Gitbook but implemented in Rust (by rust-lang)
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mdBook MkDocs
112 125
19,797 20,612
1.5% 1.4%
9.5 6.8
10 days ago 4 months ago
Rust Python
Mozilla Public License 2.0 BSD 2-clause "Simplified" License
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

mdBook

Posts with mentions or reviews of mdBook. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2025-06-15.

MkDocs

Posts with mentions or reviews of MkDocs. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2025-05-16.
  • How to Install and Use MkDocs: A Beginner's Guide
    6 projects | dev.to | 16 May 2025
    # Welcome to MkDocs For full documentation visit [mkdocs.org](https://www.mkdocs.org). ## Commands * `mkdocs new [dir-name]` - Create a new project. * `mkdocs serve` - Start the live-reloading docs server. * `mkdocs build` - Build the documentation site. * `mkdocs -h` - Print help message and exit. ## Project layout mkdocs.yml # The configuration file. docs/ index.md # The documentation homepage. ... # Other markdown pages, images and other files.
  • The Carpet feature that nobody will use
    4 projects | dev.to | 15 May 2025
    The documentation is built with MkDocs and hosted on GitHub Pages. You can browse the complete documentation at carpet.jerolba.com.
  • Why I am Migrating From Zola Back to Hugo
    8 projects | dev.to | 14 May 2025
    MkDocs
  • How to Migrate Technical Documentation: Tools, Checklist, and Tips
    5 projects | dev.to | 13 May 2025
    MkDocs is a static site generator designed specifically for project documentation and written in Python. It’s easy to set up, uses markdown for content, and features a number of themes, including the popular Material for MkDocs. MkDocs integrates well with Python-based workflows and CI/CD tools. It’s a great choice for Python developers and teams looking for simplicity and readability.
  • KiSSES: Keep Static Site Examples Simple
    3 projects | dev.to | 4 Mar 2025
    Because of my frustrations, I've released two example GitHub repositories for two popular static site generators: MkDocs and Sphinx. The goal with these repositories is to be focussed on a minimal project using the static site generator, that builds into a Read The Docs theme compatible website, and provide supporting tooling regarding formatting of the underlying formatting language. It also provides the tooling needed to deploy to GitHub Pages both from the command line and via GitHub Actions (both are powered by the ghp-import project).
  • Automating an Open Source Project with GitHub Actions
    16 projects | dev.to | 25 Feb 2025
    The documentation of the CLI is provided via a GitHub page as part of the repository. We are using MkDocs to generate the content, but I think most of the tools in that area are well integrated with GitHub and GitHub Actions.
  • How to Create and Publish a Python Package on PyPI 🐍
    1 project | dev.to | 22 Jan 2025
    The original mkdocs uses a Python package for its installer, so you can just pip install mkdocs, mkdocs new ., and then mkdocs build to convert markdown files into HTML.
  • Docusaurus – Build optimized websites quickly, focus on your content
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 28 Aug 2024
    If you don't like to run javascript outside of a browser, MkDocs is a great Python-based alternative: https://www.mkdocs.org/
  • Why I Prefer RST to Markdown
    19 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 31 Jul 2024
    I like Markdown because it's simple and doesn't give me that many headaches.

    You know what I don't like? HTML, for user submitted content in particular. The mess I've seen, after someone opted for using HTML for messages in a system, because that's what JS based editors were available for at the time. Endless need to work against XSS, with more and more incremental updates needed to the sanitization logic, some of which broke the presentation of the data in the DB.

    Never again. Markdown, BBCode, anything but that.

    As for docs? Currently just some Markdown, because that's what GitHub, GitLab, Gitea and others all know how to render.

    Maybe something like https://www.mkdocs.org/ for the more standalone use cases.

  • Why Docs-as-Code is the Key to Better Software Documentation
    5 projects | dev.to | 10 Jun 2024
    Developing the documentation website using an open-source static site generator like Sphinx or MkDocs to build the files locally through the command line, rather than using a commercial program.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing mdBook and MkDocs you can also consider the following projects:

gitbook - The open source frontend for GitBook doc sites

sphinx - The Sphinx documentation generator

rubigo

pdoc - API Documentation for Python Projects

Docusaurus - Easy to maintain open source documentation websites.

DocFX - Static site generator for .NET API documentation.

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InfluxDB 3 OSS is now GA. Transform, enrich, and act on time series data directly in the database. Automate critical tasks and eliminate the need to move data externally. Download now.
www.influxdata.com
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SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives
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Did you know that Rust is
the 5th most popular programming language
based on number of references?