Ask HN: Best way to make a documentation website for an open-source project?

6 pointsmudge5mo ago7 comments

I am looking for some good options to create a documentation website for an open source project. I am looking for something that is free or very inexpensive and that is very easy to use and setup. It could be a tool, service or hosting platform. I am not a web developer but I know markdown.

Do you know of some good options?

7 comments

prxtl5mo ago

The two most popular options are Docusaurus and Material MkDocs:

- https://docusaurus.io

- https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/

They're both used by hundreds of open source projects, are pretty easy to set up, and use markdown for content so you shouldn't have any trouble.

moomoo115mo ago

What’s the complexity of your project? If you’re not a developer and it’s a simple project, I’d say do notion pages.

If devs like it I’m sure they will contribute to make a legit docs site for it.

Good way to start imo that has zero friction (for you) and I wouldn’t personally mind it since you get public URL’s.

Or use Codex or CC to make a markdown site hosted on GitHub io

zlacker5mo ago

A lot of static site generators support rendering markdown to HTML, can't give any specifics since you probably have your own preferred stack/language to use.

bogomil5mo ago

Can you tell more about the project? For a small one launching a complicated docs system could be overhead.

aborsy5mo ago

Sphinx, MkDocs, Docusaurus.

djdjsjejb5mo ago

imo gitbook.com seems to be the easiest for nondevs

nacozarina5mo ago

spin up a mediawiki container

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse