What are the best documentation generators for Node.js apps?

Question

Development

What are the best documentation generators for Node.js apps?

6

Options
Considered

71

User
Recs.

Oct 7, 2022

Last
Updated

5 Options Considered

Best documentation generators for Node.js apps	Price	Last Updated
51 JSDoc	-	Jul 26, 2021
-- Docco	-	Aug 31, 2019
-- apiDoc	-	Aug 4, 2021
-- dox	-	Oct 29, 2021
-- Spinx-js	free	Mar 15, 2021

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score 41 · Answer 1

JSDoc

Top Pro

Numerous templates available

The community behind JSDoc has built sever templates and other related tools that allow you to use JSDoc in a simpler and more efficient way. See More

Top Con

Only provides an output of the API

JSDoc only provides a linear output of the API and not really a visually appealing or any information other than the methods and what they do. It's very technical so it may be hard for beginners to read documentation generated by it and understand it. See More

Top Pro

Grunt plugin available

For people who like to use Grunt, there's a Grunt plugin available. See More

See All

score 6 · Answer 2

Docco

Top Pro

Great for beginners

Since Docco doesn't enforce any comment style or rules, it's great for beginners who can instantly pick up without having to learn any new syntax or style. See More

Top Con

Does not enforce a pattern in writing comments

Since Docco only accepts comment lines starting with double slashes, it does not really enforce any pattern in writing comments, at least not as much as it would if it would use comment blocks. This can bring a huge disparity and even make it harder for Docco to generate good documentation as the project grows larger. See More

Top Pro

Markdown support

All the comments are run through a markdown parser, while all the code is run through Highlight.js for code highlighting. See More

See All

score 10 · Answer 3

apiDoc

Top Pro

Multi language support

Supports documenting other languages (other than just JS) See More

Top Con

Only really useful for RESTful web APIs

Can't be used for documenting the application in general See More

Top Pro

Built in REST client

Adds ability to test out your endpoints from the documentation See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 4

dox

Top Pro

Supports all jsDoc tags

dox has built-in support for all jsDoc tags and allows you to specify complex object types including optional flag =, nullable ?, non-nullable ! and variable arguments ... See More

Top Con

Needs to be integrated with another tool to generate readable documentation

dox only generates a JSON representation of the documentation. In order to have a fully readable documentation you need to integrate it with some other library that parses the JSON and returns HTML or markdown. See More

score 7 · Answer 5

Spinx-js

Top Pro

Friendly interface

Quick involvement in documentation See More

Top Con

Not quite as simple as JSDoc

Top Pro

Automatic testing of code snippets

Also, inclusion of docstrings from Python modules (API docs) See More

Top Con

Some plug ins have poor quality

Sphinx is an open source project, while the main project is actively maintained, some plug-ins developed by volunteers are not maintained. See More

Top Pro

You can write documentation that describes things. Tutorial like. Unlike JSDocs which is only for APIs

Top Pro

A tool that is used in many projects

http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/examples.html See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 6

What are the best documentation generators for Node.js apps?

5 Options Considered

JSDoc

My Recommendation for JSDoc

My Recommendation for JSDoc

Numerous templates available

Only provides an output of the API

Grunt plugin available

Docco

My Recommendation for Docco

My Recommendation for Docco

Great for beginners

Does not enforce a pattern in writing comments

Markdown support

apiDoc

My Recommendation for apiDoc

My Recommendation for apiDoc

Multi language support

Only really useful for RESTful web APIs

Built in REST client

dox

My Recommendation for dox

My Recommendation for dox

Supports all jsDoc tags

Needs to be integrated with another tool to generate readable documentation

Spinx-js

My Recommendation for Spinx-js

My Recommendation for Spinx-js

Friendly interface

Not quite as simple as JSDoc

Automatic testing of code snippets

Some plug ins have poor quality

You can write documentation that describes things. Tutorial like. Unlike JSDocs which is only for APIs

A tool that is used in many projects

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templatesgo.com

My Recommendation for templatesgo.com

My Recommendation for templatesgo.com

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