Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Bookdown VS Docusaurus

Compare Bookdown VS Docusaurus and see what are their differences

Bookdown logo Bookdown

The bookdown package is a free and open-source R package built on top of R Markdown to make it really easy to write books and long-form articles/reports.

Docusaurus logo Docusaurus

Easy to maintain open source documentation websites
  • Bookdown Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-24
  • Docusaurus Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-22

Bookdown features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Docusaurus features and specs

  • Easy Setup
    Docusaurus offers an easy and quick setup process, making it accessible for users to get started quickly. It provides a template to kickstart documentation projects efficiently.
  • Customizable
    It is highly customizable with options to add custom themes, plugins, and translations, allowing users to tailor their documentation to specific needs and visual styles.
  • React-Based
    Built on React, it enables developers familiar with React to seamlessly create documentation components and extend functionalities using React's ecosystem.
  • Versioning
    Docusaurus supports documentation versioning, making it easier to maintain and access historical versions of documentation for different releases of a project.
  • Extensive Plugin Ecosystem
    Offers a wide array of plugins to enhance functionalities, such as search capabilities, SEO, and integrations with other tools and services.
  • Good Performance
    Optimized for performance, providing fast load times and a smooth user experience for accessing documentation.
  • Active Community
    Docusaurus has an active and supportive community that contributes plugins, themes, and offers help, making it easier to find solutions to common problems.

Possible disadvantages of Docusaurus

  • Steep Learning Curve for Non-React Developers
    Developers not familiar with React may find it challenging to customize or extend Docusaurus documentation due to the React-based nature of the tool.
  • Limited Out-of-the-Box Features
    While highly customizable, the basic setup can feel limited, and users often need to add plugins and custom code to meet their specific requirements.
  • Dependency Management
    Being React-based, it comes with Node.js and NPM dependencies, which may add some overhead for managing and updating dependencies.
  • Static Site Limitations
    As a static site generator, it may be less suitable for dynamic content that requires frequent real-time updates or complex backend integrations.
  • Complex Configuration
    For projects requiring extensive customization, the configuration can become complex and harder to manage, potentially requiring more effort and expertise.

Bookdown videos

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Docusaurus videos

F8 2019: Using Docusaurus to Create Open Source Websites

More videos:

  • Review - Build and deploy Docusaurus
  • Review - Docusaurus - Docs dan Blog Final

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Bookdown and Docusaurus)
Documentation
3 3%
97% 97
Documentation As A Service & Tools
Knowledge Base
8 8%
92% 92
Search Engine
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Bookdown and Docusaurus

Bookdown Reviews

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Docusaurus Reviews

Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
In conclusion, there are several alternatives to Gitbook that are available out there. Each one has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, and the best choice will depend on your specific needs and project requirements. Consider giving Archbee, Notion, Bookstack, and Docusaurus a try to see which works best for you. Remember, you can choose the right tool to get your...
Source: www.archbee.com
Best 25 Software Documentation Tools 2023
Docusaurus is an open-source documentation tool specifically designed for creating documentation for software projects, with a focus on documentation websites and easy integration with version control systems.
Source: www.uphint.com
19 Best Online Documentation Software & Tools for 2023
Docusaurus is an open-source online documentation tool that is powered by MDX. You can maintain different versions of your documentation so that it is in sync with your project’s stages. You can also translate your docs into a language your end-users prefer by using tools like Git and Crowdin. Furthermore, with Docusaurus, you don’t have to worry about the design and...
10 static site generators to watch in 2021
Built using React, it supports writing content in MDX so that JSX and React components can be embedded into markdown, but also aims to remain easy to learn and use by providing sensible defaults and the ability to override if the developer has need. Recently releasing a major update with Docusaurus 2 beta, many of its principles were inspired by Gatsby but it is more focused...
Source: www.netlify.com
20 Best Web Project Documentation Tools
Save time and focus on your project’s documentation. Simply write docs and blog posts with Markdown and Docusaurus will publish a set of static html files ready to serve.
Source: bashooka.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Docusaurus seems to be a lot more popular than Bookdown. While we know about 210 links to Docusaurus, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Bookdown. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Bookdown mentions (3)

  • I am still new to R-Studio and I am trying to add titles to my graphs. Can anyone help?
    Most publications I work with frown on graph titles in preference to captions. If you use Rmarkdown with the bookdown package you can build documents that embed your graphs with captions that you can cross reference in your text. Despite the title, it is great for papers as well as books. https://bookdown.org/home/. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Using rshiny to displace research output
    It’s just that you need to run a Linux server to host a shiny app. You can’t complete to a webpage. But you can use BookDown. https://bookdown.org/home/. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Best practices for reproducible R code (for a PhD dissertation in the humanities)?
    Just an fyi that these are not mutually exclusive. You can use a custom latex template for the pandoc pdf translation while still using rmarkdown for your actual writing. Details here. Also, for something dissertation length you might want to look into the bookdown package; related. Source: over 3 years ago

Docusaurus mentions (210)

  • Ask HN: Static Site (not blog) Generator?
    I think this is more a question of how you want to create and store your content and templates, like whether they exist as a bunch of Markdown files, database entries, a third-party API, etc. They're typically made to work in some sort of toolchain or ecosystem. For example, if you're working in the React world, Next.js can actually output static HTML pages that work fine without JS... Just use the pages router... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 hours ago
  • Deploying a static Website with Pulumi
    For this challenge, I've built a simple static website based on Docusaurus for tutorials and blog posts. As I'm not too seasoned with Frontend development, I only made small changes to the template, and added some very simple blog posts and tutorials there. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • UmiJS: the Shaolin of web frameworks
    Dumi. A static site generator specifically designed for component library development. Look at it as something between Storybook and Docusaurus inside the Umi world (but much better integrated between each other, presumably). - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Leveraging API Documentation for Faster Developer Onboarding
    Static site generators like Docusaurus offer Flexibility for teams comfortable with Markdown and Git workflows. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • SSR Deep Dive for React Developers
    Static websites are so good that they even have their own three-letter abbreviation: SSG (Static Site Generation). And of course, there are plenty of frameworks that generate them for you, no need in manual labour: Next.js supports SSG, Gatsby is still pretty popular, lots of people love Docusaurus, Astro promises the best performance, and probably many more. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Bookdown and Docusaurus, you can also consider the following products

GitBook - Modern Publishing, Simply taking your books from ideas to finished, polished books.

ReadTheDocs - Spend your time on writing high quality documentation, not on the tools to make your documentation work.

Doxygen - Generate documentation from source code

MkDocs - Project documentation with Markdown.

mdbook - Gitbook alternative in Rust

ReadMe - A collaborative developer hub for your API or code.