Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

mdbook VS Doxygen

Compare mdbook VS Doxygen and see what are their differences

mdbook logo mdbook

Gitbook alternative in Rust

Doxygen logo Doxygen

Generate documentation from source code
  • mdbook Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-07
  • Doxygen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30

mdbook features and specs

  • Easy to Use
    mdBook is designed to be user-friendly, allowing users to create and manage books using Markdown with minimal setup.
  • Customization
    It offers a range of customization options, including themes and configuration options, enabling users to tailor it to their preferences.
  • Lightweight and Fast
    As a Rust-based tool, mdBook is lightweight and fast in performance, making it suitable for handling large projects with ease.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, mdBook encourages contributions and allows users to adapt the tool for their specific needs.
  • Integration with Continuous Integration (CI) Systems
    The platform allows for seamless integration with CI systems, facilitating automated builds and deployments.

Possible disadvantages of mdbook

  • Limited Advanced Features
    While great for straightforward documentation, mdBook may lack more advanced features needed for highly complex or unique publishing needs.
  • Learning Curve for Customization
    Although customization is a pro, the initial learning curve to truly customize the tool to its full potential can be steep for some users.
  • Dependent on Markdown
    Its reliance on Markdown can be a limitation if users require advanced styling or scripting capabilities not inherently supported by Markdown.
  • Rust Dependency
    Users need to have Rust installed to use mdBook, which might be cumbersome for users unfamiliar with Rust or not utilizing it for other projects.

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.

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Doxygen videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to mdbook and Doxygen)
Documentation
21 21%
79% 79
Documentation As A Service & Tools
Knowledge Base
29 29%
71% 71
Knowledge Management
100 100%
0% 0

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Reviews

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

mdbook Reviews

Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
Mdbook is a command-line tool for creating online portals from Markdown files. It is built in Rust and focuses on being easy to use and fast. It also supports various output formats like HTML, PDF, and ePub. It also allows you to add custom themes to give your books a unique look.
Source: www.archbee.com

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.

What are some alternatives?

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

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

MkDocs - Project documentation with Markdown.

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

Docusaurus - Easy to maintain open source documentation websites

pandoc - Pandoc is a Haskell library for converting from one markup format to another, and a command-line...

Docsify.js - A magical documentation site generator.