Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

JSDoc VS TypeDoc

Compare JSDoc VS TypeDoc and see what are their differences

JSDoc logo JSDoc

An API documentation generator for JavaScript.

TypeDoc logo TypeDoc

A documentation generator for TypeScript projects
  • JSDoc Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-09-17
  • TypeDoc Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-16

JSDoc features and specs

  • Improved Documentation
    JSDoc generates detailed HTML documentation from comments, which improves the maintainability and readability of the codebase.
  • Enhanced Code Understanding
    By using JSDoc, other developers can easily understand the purpose and usage of functions, parameters, classes, etc.
  • Autocomplete and Type Checking
    When integrated with editors like Visual Studio Code, JSDoc comments can provide better autocomplete suggestions and can be used for TypeScript-like type checking.
  • Consistency
    JSDoc enforces consistent documentation across the codebase, ensuring that all parts of the code are equally documented.
  • Easy to Use
    It is relatively straightforward to incorporate JSDoc comments into existing JavaScript code with minimal effort.
  • Supports Multiple Formats
    JSDoc supports various formats and tags, making it versatile for different documentation needs.

Possible disadvantages of JSDoc

  • Learning Curve
    New users may need some time to fully understand and utilize all the features and tags available in JSDoc.
  • Manual Effort
    Writing JSDoc comments requires a manual effort from developers, which can be time-consuming especially for large codebases.
  • Not Enforced
    Without proper enforcement, developers might omit JSDoc comments, leading to inconsistent documentation.
  • Overhead
    Too many comments can make the codebase cluttered and harder to navigate in some cases.
  • Limited to JavaScript
    JSDoc is primarily designed for JavaScript, which can be limiting if the project includes multiple languages.

TypeDoc features and specs

  • TypeScript Support
    TypeDoc generates documentation directly from your TypeScript files, taking advantage of TypeScript's type system to provide detailed and accurate documentation.
  • API Docs Generation
    It can automatically generate API documentation for TypeScript libraries, providing a clear interface overview for developers who use the library.
  • Customization
    TypeDoc allows for customization of the generated documentation through themes and plugins, enabling developers to tailor documentation output to their needs.
  • Markdown Support
    Allows for additional content to be written in Markdown, which can be included in documentation, making it easier to include more detailed explanations and examples.
  • Command Line Interface (CLI)
    A simple CLI tool that makes it easy to integrate documentation generation into build processes, improving automation and efficiency.

Possible disadvantages of TypeDoc

  • Complex Initial Setup
    For new users, setting up TypeDoc and configuring it properly can be complex and time-consuming, especially for large projects with intricate build setups.
  • Theme Limitations
    While themes can be customized, the default themes might not meet all design requirements, and creating custom themes can require additional time and effort.
  • Limited Support for Dynamic Content
    TypeDoc is less effective for projects that involve a significant amount of dynamic content or runtime type definitions, as it primarily relies on static type information.
  • Performance on Large Projects
    On very large codebases, the processing time for generating documentation can become significant, potentially slowing down development iteration cycles.

JSDoc videos

ep1 - Documenting your javascript code like a pro, setting up JSdoc

More videos:

  • Review - How JSDoc Support was Added to TypeScript pt1 - TypeScript PR Reviews
  • Review - How JSDoc Support was Added to TypeScript pt2 - TypeScript PR Reviews

TypeDoc videos

No TypeDoc videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to JSDoc and TypeDoc)
Documentation
56 56%
44% 44
Documentation As A Service & Tools
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Knowledge Base
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using JSDoc and TypeDoc. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

JSDoc Reviews

20 Best Web Project Documentation Tools
It is to Sass what JSDoc is to JavaScript: a documentation system to build pretty and powerful docs in the blink of an eye.
Source: bashooka.com

TypeDoc Reviews

We have no reviews of TypeDoc yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, JSDoc should be more popular than TypeDoc. It has been mentiond 54 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.

JSDoc mentions (54)

  • Documenting Web Components With Storybook
    One of the best tools available in Web Component development is the Custom Elements Manifest. It's a JSON representation of all your available components, covering all the attributes, methods, slots and events they support, powered by your JSDoc comments and TypeScript types. You can customize the manifest generation through plugins to support custom JSDoc comments, allowing you to power more pieces of your... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Just Say No to JavaScript
    I've seen several ways of annotating Javascript that IDEs seem to understand. They usually involve using comments before fields, classes, or functions. The most compliant one seems to be using [JSDoc](https://jsdoc.app/). JSDoc is mostly intended for generating documentation. However, the Typescript compiler can validate types (and can even interoperate with Typescript definitions), if you configure it as such. In... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • TypeScript (and JSDoc) vs JavaScript
    If you choose to use JSDoc instead of TypeScript, this only con that TypeScript has is gone, but a new one appears: JSDoc doesnt work very well with more complex types if you dont use classes to represent them. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • How to document your JavaScript package
    Thanks to JSDoc it's easy to write documentation that is coupled with your code and can be consumed by users in a variety of formats. When combined with a modern publishing flow like JSR, you can easily create comprehensive documentation for your package that not only fits within your workflow, but also integrates directly in the tools your users consume your package with. This blog post aims to cover best... - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Deep Dive: Google Apps Script - Testing APIs and Automating Sheets
    Note: For simplicity, I will omit the JavaScript documentation, but for a production grade code you may want to add the documentation (see jsdoc.app website for more). - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
View more

TypeDoc mentions (15)

  • Dual Node TypeScript Packages - The Easy Way
    Documentation generation from your compiled .d.ts with typedoc. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Publish pure ESM npm package written in TypeScript to JSR
    JavaScript (TypeScript) ecosystem has various types of API docs generators. Maybe the most popular one is TypeDoc. While generating API docs itself is easy, hosting API docs is pretty hard. Publishing generated HTML to static hosting service like GitHub Pages is the method I adopted previously, but it's not an ideal solution because we can't view docs for older versions. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Mastering JSDoc: the complete guide for Javascript developers
    Finally, JSDoc can be used to generate documentation for your code using tools like JSDoc itself and TypeDoc. These tools generate HTML or Markdown documentation based on your JSDoc annotations, making it easier for others to understand how your code works and how to use it. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Opinionated standards for JSDoc
    Since you're using TypeScript, use TypeDoc. Source: about 2 years ago
  • I created a game engine using TypeScript. Please roast it.
    I was thinking of using something like https://typedoc.org to do it, do you have experience with this sort of tools? Source: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing JSDoc and TypeDoc, you can also consider the following products

JSOLint - Format, verify, and lint JSON effortlessly with our powerful Validator Tool. Generate pretty JSON and validate online for free. Simplify your JSON tasks

Compodoc - The missing documentation tool for your Angular application

Doxygen - Generate documentation from source code

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

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

JSONFormatter.org - Online JSON Formatter and JSON Validator will format JSON data, and helps to validate, convert JSON to XML, JSON to CSV. Save and Share JSON