Read the Docs vs. GitBook comparison

GitBook is great. However, it lacks many features we consider essential for technical teams. Read the Docs is the perfect solution for software documentation.

Let's compare it to know what you can expect when deploying your project's documentation to Read the Docs.


Build your site on the cloud Generate your site's content on the cloud
Deploy previews Solve style issues before deploying
Search Always find what you are looking for
Multiple versions Publish multiple versions of your documentation
Page analytics Understand how people browse your documentation
Redirects Redirect users to the right page
Translations Serve translated versions of your docs
Private documention Give access only to trusted people
Preview changes from forked repositories Visualize edits from external collaborators
Static hosting Publish any static content
Visual diff on deploy previews Visualize differences directly on the rendered version
Custom 404 pages Style 404 pages with context-related information
Custom "robots.txt" Improve your SEO by telling bots how to explore your site
Search analytics Explore what people search for in your docs
Open Source No lock in and contribute back
Documentation tool agnostic Use the documentation tool your team prefers (Sphinx, MkDocs, Docusaurus, etc)
Custom theme Style the documentation as you like

Try it out

.readthedocs.yaml

version: 2
build:
  os: "ubuntu-22.04"
  tools:
    nodejs: "18"
    # You can also specify other tool versions:
    # python: "3"
  commands:
      # "docs/" was created following the Docusaurus tutorial:
      # npx create-docusaurus@latest docs classic
      #
      # Install Docusaurus dependencies
      - cd docs/ && npm install
      # Build the site
      - cd docs/ && npm run build
      # Copy generated files into Read the Docs directory
      - mkdir --parents $READTHEDOCS_OUTPUT/html/
      - cp --recursive docs/build/* $READTHEDOCS_OUTPUT/html/

GitBook is a great product, but gives few options because of their closed source software solution. For publishing great documentation without vendor lock in and features that your readers will love, Read the Docs is the all-in-one solution that provides everything you need out of the box, from analytics to SSO.

Get started for free

Read the Docs is the all-in-one solution for documentation

Deploy in 5 minutes and see for yourself

Still not convinced? Try it yourself