LeafWiki vs Read the Docs
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted wikis & documentation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
LeafWiki
Lightweight self-hosted wiki with Markdown stored on disk
VS
Read the Docs
Documentation hosting platform you can self-host
| Feature | LeafWiki | Read the Docs |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Wikis & Documentation | Wikis & Documentation |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,149 | ★ 8,390 |
| First released | 2024 | 2010 |
| Replaces | DokuWiki, Confluence | GitBook, Confluence |
What are LeafWiki and Read the Docs?
LeafWiki
LeafWiki is a lightweight self-hosted wiki for long-lived documentation that stores Markdown pages on disk in a tree structure. It ships as a single Go binary with SQLite and supports tables, task lists, footnotes, and Mermaid diagrams.
- Single Go binary deployment
- Markdown pages stored on disk
- Tree-based page organization
- Mermaid diagram support
Read the Docs
Read the Docs is an open-source documentation hosting platform that automatically builds and versions documentation from a Git repository. The community edition can be self-hosted for internal docs.
- Automatic docs builds from Git
- Version and language management
- Webhook-triggered rebuilds
- Full-text search
LeafWiki vs Read the Docs: key differences
LeafWiki is written in Go, while Read the Docs is built with Python. LeafWiki is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Read the Docs. Read the Docs is the more established project (first released 2010), while LeafWiki arrived in 2024. Read the Docs has the considerably larger community, at 8,390 GitHub stars versus 1,149.
Why pick each one
Choose LeafWiki if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
Choose Read the Docs if…
- Great for versioned project docs
- Automated build pipeline
Watch out for
- Complex to self-host
- Heavier resource needs
Frequently asked questions
Is LeafWiki or Read the Docs better?
Neither is universally better. Read the Docs has the larger community, while LeafWiki is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are LeafWiki and Read the Docs free and open-source?
Yes. LeafWiki is licensed under MIT and Read the Docs under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run LeafWiki and Read the Docs with Docker?
LeafWiki: yes. Read the Docs: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, LeafWiki or Read the Docs?
LeafWiki has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Read the Docs. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.