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ReadTheDocs VS Antora

Compare ReadTheDocs VS Antora and see what are their differences

ReadTheDocs logo ReadTheDocs

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

Antora logo Antora

A static site generator for creating documentation sites from AsciiDoc content aggregated from...
  • ReadTheDocs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-09
  • Antora Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-05-31

ReadTheDocs features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    ReadTheDocs simplifies the process of generating and hosting documentation. It integrates easily with various version control systems like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, making it straightforward to deploy and update documentation.
  • Automatic Builds
    Documentation is automatically built and updated each time changes are pushed to the repository. This ensures that the docs are always in sync with the codebase.
  • Search Functionality
    Search functionality is built-in, providing users with the ability to quickly find information within the documentation.
  • Custom Themability
    ReadTheDocs supports theming and custom CSS, allowing users to personalize the look and feel of their documentation.
  • Multi-Version Support
    It supports multiple versions of documentation, making it easy to maintain and access different versions of your project’s documentation.
  • Multi-Language Support
    ReadTheDocs provides support for multiple languages, enabling users to create and manage documentation in various languages.
  • Integration with Sphinx
    As ReadTheDocs relies on Sphinx, it offers powerful extensions and integrations, enhancing the documentation capabilities with code syntax highlighting, inline citations, and API documentation generation.

Possible disadvantages of ReadTheDocs

  • Limited Customization
    While ReadTheDocs offers theming capabilities, it is still relatively limited compared to custom-built documentation sites. Customizing beyond basic theming can be challenging.
  • Performance Issues
    For very large projects, the build times can be longer, and occasional performance issues might arise, especially with extensive documentation.
  • Learning Curve
    Although it is designed to be user-friendly, integrating with Sphinx and setting up the initial configuration for complex projects can have a learning curve.
  • Dependency on Sphinx
    As ReadTheDocs relies heavily on Sphinx, any limitations or bugs within Sphinx can directly affect the documentation site's functionality.
  • Limited Control Over Hosting
    Because it's a hosted service, users have limited control over the hosting environment, which could be a limitation for some companies requiring specific deployment configurations.
  • Potential Downtime
    Since it’s a cloud service, ReadTheDocs may experience downtime or outages, which could temporarily affect the availability of the documentation.
  • Inconsistent Build Environments
    Differences between local development and the ReadTheDocs build environment can sometimes lead to inconsistencies and unexpected issues in the rendered documentation.

Antora features and specs

  • Version Management
    Antora allows you to manage and publish multiple versions of your documentation seamlessly, making it suitable for projects that require maintaining documentation for different software versions.
  • Modular Documentation
    Antora supports documentation architecture that divides content into reusable modules, enabling better organization and reuse across different documents.
  • Git Integration
    Antora integrates directly with Git repositories, allowing you to write and maintain documentation alongside your source code, and benefit from Git's version control.
  • Extensible and Customizable
    With its plugin system, Antora is highly extensible and can be customized to fit various needs, including theming and functionality.
  • Asciidoctor-Based
    Using Asciidoctor as its document processor, Antora benefits from a rich set of syntax features and document structures, allowing for highly formatted content.

Possible disadvantages of Antora

  • Learning Curve
    New users may face a steep learning curve, particularly if they are not familiar with AsciiDoc or the modular documentation approach used by Antora.
  • Complex Configuration
    Setting up Antora can be complex, especially for users unfamiliar with Node.js-based tools, as it requires specific configurations and understanding of its modular structure.
  • Limited Theme Options
    Antora does not have as wide a variety of themes available out of the box as some other documentation generators, which can make customization challenging for visually-oriented projects.
  • Performance Overhead
    Building large documentation sites with Antora can be resource-intensive and may require tuning to achieve optimal performance.
  • Dependency on Git and Node.js
    Users must have working knowledge of Git and Node.js to fully leverage Antora, which might add an overhead for teams that are not using these technologies.

ReadTheDocs videos

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Antora videos

Merrell Antora review: Zapatillas trail mujer. Análisis por Paula Bueno, patron Carrerasdemontana.

More videos:

  • Review - Merrell Antora Review - La zapatilla de Trail Running específica para mujer
  • Review - Merrell Antora y Nova - Modelos mujer y hombre para Trail Running fácil

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ReadTheDocs and Antora)
Documentation
62 62%
38% 38
Task Management
100 100%
0% 0
Documentation As A Service & Tools
Knowledge Base
61 61%
39% 39

User comments

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Reviews

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

ReadTheDocs Reviews

Best Gitbook Alternatives You Need to Try in 2023
ReadTheDocs is a web-based platform for building, hosting, and versioning documentation. It supports multiple languages and has built-in versioning, so you can easily switch between different versions of your documentation. It also integrates with various version control systems, including GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. Additionally, ReadTheDocs provides a hosting service...
Source: www.archbee.com

Antora Reviews

We have no reviews of Antora yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Antora seems to be a lot more popular than ReadTheDocs. While we know about 22 links to Antora, we've tracked only 2 mentions of ReadTheDocs. 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.

ReadTheDocs mentions (2)

Antora mentions (22)

  • Asciidoctor: A fast text processor and publishing toolchain
    Very underappreciated project, for multiple repo online docs there's https://antora.org it is built on Asciidoctor.js, a powerful tool but the learning curve can be steep. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • I don't always use LaTeX, but when I do, I compile to HTML (2013)
    You have also AsciiDoctor ( https://asciidoctor.org/ ) which is alive and well. I am using it for technical CS documentation internally, but only for single page documents. I did not try to deploy their whole multi-document setup called Antora ( https://antora.org/ ). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Quarkus : Greener, Better, Faster, Stronger
    Well scaffolding an extension also generates a docs module wich leverages Antora, and with a minimal effort, we can produce a nice and clean documentation. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Docs as Code at Linode (2020)
    AsciiDoc has a bit more features compared to Markdown which allows for a richer presentation of the docs. Biggest difference is that Linode has the docs in a separate repository. Not sure if it is a limitation of their toolchain or a deliberate decision. Antora allows you to have the project documentation in the actual project repositories. It then pulls the docs from all the different repos together to build the... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Ideas on improving internal technical documentation`
    I've been pushing for Antora everywhere I go. It allows you to keep text-based (AsciiDoc, similar to markdown but an actual standard) documentation with your repositories and from that build a central documentation portal site. Source: about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing ReadTheDocs and Antora, you can also consider the following products

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

Docusaurus - Easy to maintain open source documentation websites

Documize - Enterprise-grade wiki and knowledge management platform

Asciidoctor - In the spirit of free software, everyone is encouraged to help improve this project.

HackMD - Fast and flexible, real-time collaborative markdown, inspired by Hackpad.

MkDocs - Project documentation with Markdown.