Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login

PlantUML VS Doxygen

Compare PlantUML VS Doxygen and see what are their differences

BoldDesk
Premium Customer Service Software to manage your customer support. Manage support email, publish self-help articles, and automate repetitive tasks. featured
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

PlantUML logo PlantUML

PlantUML is an open-source tool that uses simple textual descriptions to draw UML diagrams.

Doxygen logo Doxygen

Generate documentation from source code
  • PlantUML Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-22
  • Doxygen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30

PlantUML features and specs

  • Simple Syntax
    PlantUML uses a plain text language that is easy to learn, making it accessible for both technical and non-technical users.
  • Quick Diagram Creation
    Due to its straightforward text-based syntax, diagrams can be created and modified quickly without the need for a graphical interface.
  • Version Control Friendly
    Diagrams are stored as text files, making them easy to manage with version control systems like Git.
  • Integrations
    PlantUML integrates well with many other tools and platforms including IDEs (e.g., IntelliJ, VSCode), documentation generators (e.g., Doxygen, Sphinx), and project management tools.
  • Wide Range of Diagrams
    PlantUML supports a variety of UML and non-UML diagrams, including sequence diagrams, use case diagrams, class diagrams, and more.
  • Open Source
    PlantUML is an open-source tool, which makes it free to use and allows for community contributions and extensions.

Possible disadvantages of PlantUML

  • Learning Curve
    While the syntax is simple, users unfamiliar with text-based diagramming may need time to become proficient.
  • No GUI
    PlantUML lacks a graphical user interface (GUI), which might be a disadvantage for users who prefer drag-and-drop diagram creation.
  • Complex Diagrams
    For very complex diagrams, the text-based syntax can become cumbersome and hard to manage.
  • Rendering Limitations
    The style and formatting options are less flexible compared to some dedicated graphical diagramming tools.
  • Performance
    For large diagrams, the text-to-diagram rendering process can be slow.
  • Security Concerns
    Using PlantUML with remote server options might raise security issues, particularly when dealing with sensitive information.

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.

PlantUML videos

+ Add

PlantUML - beautiful quick diagrams to explain your models

More videos:

  • Review - Folge16 - PlantUML und IntelliJ
  • Tutorial - PlantUML Gizmo Tutorial: Google Docs Add-on
  • Review - Mermaid vs PlantUML vs HackerDraw: Which One Is Best For You?
  • Review - Using PlantUML For Diagrams In A GitLab Wiki

Doxygen videos

+ Add

Doxygen

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PlantUML and Doxygen)

PlantUML

Doxygen

Diagrams
100 100%
Diagrams
0% 0
Documentation
0 0%
Documentation
100% 100
Flowcharts
100 100%
Flowcharts
0% 0
Documentation As A Service & Tools
0 0%
Documentation As A Service & Tools
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using PlantUML and Doxygen. 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 PlantUML and Doxygen

PlantUML Reviews

Top 7 diagrams as code tools for software architecture
PlantUML is a tool that allows you to write diagrams such as sequence, object, component, usecase, class diagrams and more.
Source: icepanel.medium.com
5 great diagramming tools for enterprise and software architects
PlantUML is an open source tool and syntax that allows you to make sequence, use case, class, object, and other diagrams from code. It also supports non-UML diagrams like JSON and YAML. In addition, it enjoys support from ArchiMate, ERD, Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), and other common notation styles. Its simple, plain-text definitions make creating, sharing, and...
Source: www.redhat.com
Software Diagrams - Plant UML vs Mermaid
For C4 Models, Mermaid support is still experimental. This shows as you have little control over the way the diagram is rendered, and some parts are unreadable (i.e., arrows over nodes). PlantUML works as you would expect and has support for more advanced setup like sprites. Not even close on this one. Winner: PlantUML
Source: www.dandoescode.com
9 Best UML Software For Mac & PC
PlantUML is another free open source sequence diagram software that uses text input to build UML charts. PlantUML requires using a specific PlantUML Language to construct sequence charts but once learned it’s very flexible.
Source: machow2.com
40 Open Source, Free and Top Unified Modeling Language (UML) Tools
PlantUML is a component that allows users to quickly write sequence diagrams, usecase diagrams, class diagrams, activity diagrams, component diagrams, state diagrams, deployment diagrams, object diagrams and wireframe graphical interfaces. Diagrams are defined using a simple and intuitive language. Images can be generated in PNG, SVG or LaTeX format and it is also possible...
Source: www.predictiveanalyticstoday.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.
Source: www.ameerpet.org

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PlantUML seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 12 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.

PlantUML mentions (12)

  • Owning my own data, part 1: Integrating a self-hosted calendar solution
    That particular diagram seems to have been generated by https://plantuml.com according to the image's metadata. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Common Mistakes in Architecture Diagrams (2020)
    I have to confess I am guilty of this — I used to just draw some unstructured circles and arrows on a whiteboard and call it enough. Lately I've been trying to work my way through lots of different diagram types from https://plantuml.com/, and it does help to wrap my mind around the existing options. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • LLM + Mermaid: How Modern Teams Create UML Diagrams Without Lucidchart
    Today, tools like Mermaid and PlantUML have taken center stage, thanks to their ability to generate diagrams with text-based commands. Even better, AI-powered assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, and GitHub Copilot have made generating diagrams even easier. These tools work directly within a developer's environment, creating diagrams that are version-controlled and integrated seamlessly into workflows. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Blockdiag – simple diagram images generator – blockdiag 1.0 documentation
    While inactive blockdiag was small and nice for automatically annotating documentation. As you can see it hasn't been maintained for a few years. https://github.com/blockdiag/blockdiag With complex diagrams, I find good old PlantUML diagrams more useful if not as initially pretty as mermaid. Plus it will output archimate without having to touch that UI https://plantuml.com/ But really it is horses for courses.... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Introduction to Haskell Diagrams
    Use a high-level language like Plant UML, D2, Graphviz which are good for the purpose they are designed for, but not for generic purpose diagramming. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

Doxygen mentions (0)

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

What are some alternatives?

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

draw.io - Online diagramming application

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

yEd - yEd is a free desktop application to quickly create, import, edit, and automatically arrange diagrams. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix/Linux.

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

LucidChart - LucidChart is the missing link in online productivity suites. LucidChart allows users to create, collaborate on, and publish attractive flowcharts and other diagrams from a web browser.

Docusaurus - Easy to maintain open source documentation websites

Loading...