Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ReadTheDocs VS HackMD

Compare ReadTheDocs VS HackMD 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.

HackMD logo HackMD

Fast and flexible, real-time collaborative markdown, inspired by Hackpad.
  • ReadTheDocs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-09
  • HackMD Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-08-04

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.

HackMD features and specs

  • Collaboration
    HackMD offers real-time collaborative editing, which allows multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously. This feature enhances teamwork and productivity, especially for remote teams.
  • Markdown Support
    HackMD is built around Markdown, providing a simple yet powerful syntax for formatting documents. Markdown compatibility makes it easy to create well-structured content with minimal effort.
  • Version Control
    The platform includes version history, allowing users to track changes, revert to previous versions, and compare different iterations. This feature ensures that work is not lost and can be systematically reviewed.
  • Integration
    HackMD integrates with popular platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Dropbox, allowing for seamless workflow integration. This makes it easy to incorporate HackMD into existing development and project management processes.
  • Accessibility
    HackMD is a web-based tool, meaning it can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. This ensures that users can collaborate and edit documents from different locations and devices.

Possible disadvantages of HackMD

  • Limited Offline Support
    Since HackMD is primarily a web-based tool, it offers limited functionalities when offline. Users may face challenges accessing and editing documents without an internet connection.
  • Subscription Model
    While HackMD offers a free tier, advanced features and greater collaboration capacities are locked behind a subscription model. This could be a disadvantage for users and small teams with limited budgets.
  • Learning Curve
    Users unfamiliar with Markdown or collaborative editing tools may have a learning curve to overcome. This could affect initial productivity and user experience.
  • Data Privacy
    As a cloud-based service, users may have concerns about data privacy and security. Sensitive information stored on the platform could potentially be accessed by third parties or become vulnerable to data breaches.
  • Performance Issues
    Under heavy usage or with large documents, some users might experience occasional performance issues such as lag or slow syncing. This can disrupt the workflow and collaborative efforts.

ReadTheDocs videos

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

Add video

HackMD videos

hackmd.io opensource application review

More videos:

  • Demo - Techstars Paris 2018 Demo Day - HackMD pitch
  • Review - Screencast-Tutorial zu HackMD

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ReadTheDocs and HackMD)
Documentation
100 100%
0% 0
Task Management
39 39%
61% 61
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Documentation As A Service & Tools

User comments

Share your experience with using ReadTheDocs and HackMD. 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 ReadTheDocs and HackMD

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

HackMD Reviews

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, HackMD seems to be a lot more popular than ReadTheDocs. While we know about 66 links to HackMD, 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)

HackMD mentions (66)

  • If it is worth keeping, save it in Markdown
    HackMD already does this. It has a dual-pane view for raw markdown and formatted output, supports WYSIWYG editing, and allows real-time collaboration. Surprised no one mentioned it. - [HackMD: Your Collaborative Markdown Workspace for Knowledge Sharing](https://hackmd.io/). - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • TL;DR of Deep Dive into LLMs Like ChatGPT by Andrej Karpathy
    [2]: https://hackmd.io/@opensourceinitiative/osaid-faq#What-is-the-role-of-training-data-in-the-Open-Source-AI-Definition. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Web scraping with GPT-4o: powerful but expensive
    About this document ===== [0] https://hackmd.io/@sparna/semantic-markdown-draft. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy
    It seems, at the beginning of the 90s there were a lot of expectations in regard to DC-nets, considered to be a way better alternative to remailers of the time [1]. At least that's my impression after reading Tim May's FAQ (The Cyphernomicon) [2]. Any progress on this front? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_remailer [2]: https://hackmd.io/@jmsjsph/TheCyphernomicon. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Meta Llama 3
    Actually right now the OSI is hosting ongoing discussion this year on what it means for AI to be open source. Here is their latest blog post on the subject: https://opensource.org/blog/open-source-ai-definition-weekly-update-april-15 Here is the latest draft: https://hackmd.io/@opensourceinitiative/osaid-0-0-7 And a discussion about the draft:... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Documize - Enterprise-grade wiki and knowledge management platform

Boardist - Personal workspace for all the data

MkDocs - Project documentation with Markdown.

Dokit - The solution for disseminating know-how: work instructions, procedures, knowledge base, documentation techniques, product support, wiki enterprise.

Twake - Be more productive with Twake : the collaborative work platform to organize and manage all your projects on a single platform.