Read the Docs

Docs hosting that builds and publishes documentation from your Git repository.

Free plan + paidOpen sourceWiki and knowledge base tools

Verified facts: 4 of 4
Alternatives ranked: 5
Approved reviews: 0
Visits sent from here: 0

About Read the Docs

Read the Docs builds, versions and hosts documentation straight from a Git repository. It began in the Python world around Sphinx and now supports MkDocs, Docusaurus, VitePress and other generators, building a new version of the docs for every branch, tag and pull request. Readers get versioned docs, search and downloadable formats, and maintainers get build previews, redirects and traffic analytics. There are two sides to it: Read the Docs Community is free forever for open-source projects and is supported by ethical ads, and is used by a large share of the open-source ecosystem; Read the Docs for Business hosts private documentation with team management, SSO through GitHub or GitLab and more concurrent builds, priced in monthly tiers with a free trial. The platform itself is open source. It doesn't include a writing editor, so it suits teams already comfortable writing docs in their repo rather than those wanting a WYSIWYG knowledge base.

Best for: Open-source projects and developer teams that build docs from Git with Sphinx or MkDocs.

What works

Free forever for open-source projects
Works with Sphinx, MkDocs, Docusaurus and more
Automatic versioned builds and pull request previews

Why people leave

No built-in editor; docs live in your repo
Community hosting shows ads
Private docs require a paid plan

Why people left Read the Docs

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Read the Docs: common questions

Is Read the Docs free?

Read the Docs has a free plan and paid plans.

Is Read the Docs open source?

Yes. The source code is on GitHub at readthedocs/readthedocs.org.

What platforms does Read the Docs run on?

Read the Docs is available for Web.

What are the best alternatives to Read the Docs?

The highest-ranked Read the Docs alternatives right now are GitBook, Mintlify and ReadMe. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 5 Read the Docs alternatives

Read the Docs facts

4 of 4 verified

Open-source projects: Free forever; Checked Oct 25, 2026about.readthedocs.com(opens source in a new tab); “Read the Docs Community is free, forever.”
Starting price: $50 per month (Basic); Checked Oct 25, 2026about.readthedocs.com(opens source in a new tab); “Host your project for free Basic For small teams getting started with private docs. $50 per month”
Free trial: 30 days; Checked Oct 25, 2026about.readthedocs.com(opens source in a new tab); “Get started for free with a 30-day trial.”
Supported tools: Sphinx, MkDocs, Docusaurus and more; Checked Oct 25, 2026about.readthedocs.com(opens source in a new tab); “Supports any documentation tool Integrated support for Sphinx , MkDocs , Docusaurus , and more.”