Sphinx Best For: Python projects, but also works for other languages with plugins. Features: Generates comprehensive, structured documentation; integrates with reStructuredText and Markdown; and supports multi-language documentation. Output: HTML, PDF, LaTeX, ePub. Pros: Highly customizable, has extensive plugin support (e.g., Read the Docs integration). Cons: Has a learning curve and may feel complex for smaller projects.
Doxygen Best For: C, C++, Java, Python, and other languages. Features: Extracts comments directly from code to generate structured documentation; supports diagrams and visualizations with Graphviz. Output: HTML, PDF, RTF, LaTeX. Pros: Handles large codebases well; versatile with many configuration options. Cons: Limited styling options and can be challenging to set up for first-time users.
JSDoc Best For: JavaScript and TypeScript projects. Features: Automatically generates documentation from JavaScript comments, with good support for ES6 and TypeScript. Output: HTML. Pros: Easy to use for JavaScript/TypeScript projects, with many themes available. Cons: Limited to JavaScript/TypeScript, with basic styling options.
MkDocs Best For: Simple, Markdown-based documentation, often for static sites. Features: Lightweight and straightforward; builds static sites with easy-to-use themes like Material for MkDocs. Output: Static HTML. Pros: Quick setup, beautiful themes, perfect for static documentation sites. Cons: Limited advanced features compared to Sphinx, mainly geared toward Markdown.
Swagger / OpenAPI Best For: API documentation. Features: Designed for RESTful API documentation; includes interactive API explorer and JSON/YAML spec generation. Output: Interactive HTML, JSON/YAML specs. Pros: Excellent for creating, testing, and sharing APIs; interactive documentation. Cons: Not suitable for non-API documentation.
Typedoc Best For: TypeScript projects. Features: Similar to JSDoc but built specifically for TypeScript, with a focus on type-safe documentation. Output: HTML. Pros: Type-safe documentation generation for TypeScript; simple setup. Cons: Limited to TypeScript projects.
DocFX Best For: .NET and cross-platform projects. Features: Supports Markdown and C# XML comments for comprehensive documentation generation. Output: HTML, PDF. Pros: Built by Microsoft for .NET projects, versatile, handles large-scale documentation. Cons: Primarily for .NET and Microsoft stack, though adaptable for other languages.
For Code-Heavy Projects: Doxygen, Sphinx, JSDoc, Typedoc, or DocFX. For API Documentation: Swagger/OpenAPI, Redoc. For General Documentation: MkDocs with Material theme for simple sites, Sphinx for complex needs.