Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Doxygen VS Swagger UI

Compare Doxygen VS Swagger UI and see what are their differences

Doxygen logo Doxygen

Generate documentation from source code

Swagger UI logo Swagger UI

Swagger UI is a dependency-free collection of HTML, Javascript, and CSS assets that dynamically generate beautiful documentation from a Swag
  • Doxygen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30
  • Swagger UI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17

Doxygen features and specs

  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Doxygen supports a wide range of languages and can generate detailed, organized documentation for various types of codebases, including class hierarchies, collaboration diagrams, and more.
  • Automatic Code Parsing
    Doxygen automatically parses the code and extracts relevant comments, which helps in creating accurate and up-to-date documentation without much manual intervention.
  • Customizable Output
    Doxygen allows customization of the output format with several templates, enabling developers to generate documentation in HTML, LaTeX, RTF, and other formats.
  • Integration with Other Tools
    Doxygen integrates well with other tools such as Graphviz for generating diagrams, and it can be incorporated into continuous integration pipelines to ensure documentation is always current.
  • Open Source
    Doxygen is open-source software, meaning it is free to use and has a community of contributors that may add features or fix issues over time.

Possible disadvantages of Doxygen

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive features and customization options, Doxygen can be quite complex to set up and use effectively, especially for beginners.
  • Performance Issues
    For very large codebases, Doxygen can be slow in processing and generating the documentation, which might be a limitation for some projects.
  • Limited Support for Non-Standard Code Constructs
    Doxygen may have difficulties interpreting non-standard code constructs or highly complex code, which could lead to incomplete or inaccurate documentation.
  • Dependency on Code Comments
    The quality and usefulness of the generated documentation heavily depend on the thoroughness and clarity of the comments within the code, requiring disciplined commenting practices.
  • Outdated Documentation
    If not regularly maintained and regenerated, the produced documentation can become outdated as the codebase evolves, leading to potential misinformation.

Swagger UI features and specs

  • Interactive API Documentation
    Swagger UI provides a user-friendly interface where developers can interact with an API directly from the documentation, making it easier to understand and use.
  • Automated Documentation Generation
    Swagger UI can automatically generate API documentation from an OpenAPI Specification, reducing the time and effort required to write and maintain documentation manually.
  • Standardization
    It adheres to the OpenAPI Specification, a widely-accepted standard for defining APIs, which promotes consistency and interoperability across different tools and platforms.
  • Comprehensive Testing
    Developers can use the Swagger UI to test endpoints directly, allowing for quicker identification and resolution of issues during development.
  • Customization
    The UI can be customized to fit the specific needs and branding of a project, offering flexibility in how the API documentation is presented.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Swagger UI is part of a larger Swagger suite of tools, supported by a large community and numerous plugins, enhancing its capabilities and integration options.

Possible disadvantages of Swagger UI

  • Learning Curve
    New users may find Swagger UI complex and might require some time to get familiar with the OpenAPI Specification and the tool’s features.
  • Performance
    For very large APIs with numerous endpoints and complex schemas, Swagger UI can experience performance slowdowns, affecting usability.
  • Initial Setup
    Setting up Swagger UI and configuring the OpenAPI Specification can be time-consuming and requires accuracy to ensure the documentation is correctly generated.
  • Dependency on OpenAPI Specification
    The effectiveness of Swagger UI is highly dependent on the accuracy and completeness of the OpenAPI Specification. Poorly defined specifications can lead to incomplete or incorrect documentation.
  • Security Concerns
    Exposing APIs in an interactive documentation tool can raise security concerns, particularly if sensitive functions are publicly accessible without proper authentication and authorization controls.

Doxygen videos

Doxygen

Swagger UI videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Doxygen and Swagger UI)
Documentation
73 73%
27% 27
API Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Documentation As A Service & Tools
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Doxygen and Swagger UI

Doxygen Reviews

Best 25 Software Documentation Tools 2023
Doxygen is a popular documentation generator tool that is commonly used in software development projects to automatically generate documentation from source code comments.
Source: www.uphint.com
Introduction to Doxygen Alternatives In 2021
Doxygen is the software application for developing paperwork from illustrated C++ sources, but other programming languages like C, C#, Objective-C, UNO/OpenOffice, PHP, Java, IDL of Corba, Python, and Microsoft, VHDL, Fortran are also supported. From a collection of recorded source files, user can develop an HTML online documents web browser and an offline referral manual....
Source: www.webku.net
Doxygen Alternatives
Doxygen is the software for creating documentation from illustrated C++ sources, but other programming languages like C, C#, Objective-C, UNO/OpenOffice, PHP, Java, IDL of Corba, Python, and Microsoft, VHDL, Fortran are also supported. From a collection of documented source files, user can create an HTML online documentation browser and an offline reference manual. It also...
Source: www.educba.com
Doxygen Alternatives
Since the documentation is directly extracted from the sources, it is a lot less difficult to maintain the compatibility between the source code and the documentation. Having said that, this tax has a few problems with it. Therefore, I have compiled a list of some of the other options available to you besides Doxygen.

Swagger UI Reviews

Top 20 Open Source & Cloud Free Postman Alternatives (2024 Updated)
Swagger UI is part of the Swagger ecosystem, providing tools for API design and documentation. It allows developers to visualize and interact with APIs effortlessly.
Source: medium.com
Postman Alternatives for API Testing and Monitoring
Swagger UI is a commonly used interactive visualization tool for RESTful web services, used for documenting, designing, and testing APIs. Swagger UI reads the OpenAPI specification document and generates an interactive documentation website. This web-based UI allows users to visualize and interact with the API’s resources without having any of the implementation logic in...
15 Best Postman Alternatives for Automated API Testing [2022 Updated]
One of the most appealing features is that Swagger UI is entirely customizable. You can freely modify your tool to meet your needs with complete access to the source code. Swagger UI makes an existing JSON or YAML document interactive. It creates a platform that organizes and categorizes our methods (get, put, post, delete).
Source: testsigma.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Swagger UI seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 49 times since March 2021. 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.

Doxygen mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Doxygen yet. Tracking of Doxygen recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Swagger UI mentions (49)

  • Common Mistakes in RESTful API Design
    The OpenAPI Specification (formerly Swagger) has become the industry standard for documenting RESTful APIs. Tools like Swagger UI and ReDoc can generate interactive documentation from OpenAPI definitions, reducing the effort to maintain quality documentation. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Leveraging API Documentation for Faster Developer Onboarding
    Reference generators like Swagger UI Automatically create API references from OpenAPI specifications, keeping documentation in sync with the actual API. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How to Build a Task Manager API with Django REST Framework: Part 7 - API Documentation with OpenAPI and Swagger
    We’ll use OpenAPI (a standard for API specifications) and Swagger UI (a tool to visualize and interact with the API) to generate our documentation. The drf-spectacular library will help us create an OpenAPI schema for our DRF API and integrate Swagger UI seamlessly. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • How to get RCE with LaTeX via file upload
    Who has never analyzed a website and ended up causing an error and discovered that the server was in debug mode and therefore revealing environment variables (like other URLs, database connection strings and even credentials) and routes to API endpoints and their respective Swagger UI documentation? Cool, and who has ever come across something called "LaTeX Compiler API 1.0" among those endpoints? - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • The Good, the Bad, and the OpenAPI: Why Developers Love and Hate It
    Poor UI/UX – OpenAPI-generated documentation tools like Swagger UI are functional but often lack an intuitive experience. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Doxygen and Swagger UI, you can also consider the following products

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

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

DocFX - A documentation generation tool for API reference and Markdown files!

swagger.io - Swagger is an open source RESTapi Documentation Tool.

MkDocs - Project documentation with Markdown.

Insomnia REST - Design, debug, test, and mock APIs locally, on Git, or cloud. Build better APIs collaboratively for the most popular protocols with a dev‑friendly UI, built-in automation, and an extensible plugin ecosystem.