Dendron vs Doctave
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Dendron
Hierarchical note-taking and personal knowledge wiki
VS
Doctave
Markdown documentation site generator with search
| Feature | Dendron | Doctave |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,458 | ★ 669 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Notion, Confluence | Confluence, GitBook |
Why pick each one
Choose Dendron if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 7.5k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Choose Doctave if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Dendron or Doctave better?
Neither is universally better. Dendron has the larger community, while Doctave is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Dendron and Doctave free and open-source?
Yes. Dendron is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Doctave under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dendron and Doctave with Docker?
Dendron: check the project docs for container support. Doctave: check the project docs for container support.