Comparison of documentation generators

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of documentation generators. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.

1 General information
2 Operating system support
3 Language support
4 Input formats
5 Output formats
6 Other features
7 See also

General information

Basic general information about the generators: creator/company, license/price etc.

Name	Creator	First public release date	Latest stable version	Software license
ApiGen	David Grudl, Jaroslav Hanslík, Ondřej Nešpor	2010	2.3.0	New BSD / GPL v2 / GPL v3
Appledoc	Gentle Bytes	2009	2.0.3[1]	Modified BSD
Autoduck	Eric Artzt	1993	2.10[2]	Freeware [3]
BI Documenter	Mienasoft	2006	1.5	Proprietary
DB Manual	Blue Oceans Ltd	2006	1.3	Proprietary
DBDesc	Logica2	2005	3.1	Proprietary
DBScribe	Leadum Software	2007	1.1	Proprietary
classdoc	Jens Gulden	2001	1.0	GPL
CppDoc	Richard Feit	1998/11/23	2.3.1	Proprietary
Ddoc	Walter Bright	2005/09/19	DMD 1.010 / GDC 0.14	Freeware / GPL
devscribe	Geoff Cox	2008	2.00 [4]	MSDN Code Gallery Licenses
Doc-O-Matic	toolsfactory software inc	2000/11/--	6.1	Proprietary
SQL Documentor	InfoCaptor	2005/11/--	3.4	Proprietary
DOC++	Dragos Acostachioaie.	2002/12/22	3.4.10	GPL
Document! X	Innovasys	1998	5.2.1.3	Proprietary
Doxygen	Dimitri van Heesch	1997	1.7.5	GPL
Epydoc	Edward Loper	2002/01/--	3.0	MIT License
fpdoc	Sebastian Guenther	2005?	2.4.0	GPL
GenHelp	FraserSoft	1998/10/--	5.6.7	Proprietary
HeaderDoc	Apple Inc.	2000/09/--	8.7.15	APSL
Help Generator	Agora Software BV	2004/08/--	4.0	Proprietary
HyperSQL	Randy Phillips, Itzchak Rehberg	2001	3.7.5	GPL
IDLdoc	Michael Galloy	2002	3.3.1	BSD
Imagix 4D	Imagix Corp.	1995	6.6	Proprietary
Javadoc	Sun Microsystems	1995	1.6	GPL
JSDoc	Michael Mathews	2001/07/--	1.10.2	GPL
JsDoc Toolkit	Michael Mathews	2007?	2.0.0	MIT License
KDOC	Sirtaj Singh Kang	1999	3.0.1	?
Natural Docs	Greg Valure	2003/05/26	1.51	GPL
NDoc	Kevin Downs	2003/07/27	1.3.1	GPL
phpDocumentor	Joshua Eichorn	2000	1.4.4	LGPL
phpSimpleDoc	Thierry Graff	2008	1.0	GPL
Project Analyzer	Aivosto Oy	1997?	9.0	Proprietary
RDoc	Dave Thomas	2001/12/14	in Ruby core	Ruby License
ROBODoc	Frans Slothouber	1995/01/19	4.99.36	GPL
Sandcastle	Microsoft	2008/05/--	2.4.10520	Ms-PL
SoDa	IBM	2008/07/--	7.0	Proprietary
Sphinx	Georg Brandl	2008/03/--	1.1	BSD
ThimbleDoc	Thimbleopensource.com	2008	0.2beta	GPL
TwinText	PTLogica	2002	2008.0.406	Proprietary
VBDOX	Mihayl Stamenov	2001/10/26	2.1.0	GPL
VSdocman	Helixoft	2000/10/--	5.5	Proprietary
jGrouseDoc	Denis Riabtchik	2007/04/--	1.5	BSD
Haddock	Simon Marlow	2002	2.0.0.0 (2008)	BSD
Universal Report	Universal Software	2001–2010	9.0	Free Education / Proprietary
YARD	Loren Segal	2007/02/24	0.7.3	MIT License
Name	Creator	First public release date	Latest stable version	Software license

Operating system support

The operating systems the generators can run on.

	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix
ApiGen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Appledoc	No	Yes	No	No	No
Autoduck	Yes	No	No	No	No
BI Documenter	Yes	No	No	No	No
classdoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CppDoc	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
DB Manual	Yes	No	No	No	No
DBDesc	Yes	No	No	No	No
DBScribe	Yes	No	No	No	No
Ddoc	Yes	Yes³	Yes	Yes³	No
devscribe	Yes	No	No	No	No
Doc-O-Matic	Yes	No	No	No	No
DOC++	Yes	Yes?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Document! X	Yes	No	No	No	No
Doxygen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Epydoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
fpdoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GenHelp	Yes	No	No	No	No
Haddock	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HeaderDoc	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Help Generator	Yes	No	No	No	No
HyperSQL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IDLdoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Imagix 4D	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Javadoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
jGrouseDoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
JSDoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
JsDoc Toolkit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KDOC	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Natural Docs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No
phpDocumentor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
phpSimpleDoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Project Analyzer	Yes	No	No	No	No
RDoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ROBODoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sandcastle	Yes	No	No	No	No
ThimbleDoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TwinText	Yes	No	No	No	No
Universal Report	Yes	No	No	No	No
VBDOX	Yes	No	No	No	No
VSdocman	Yes	No	No	No	No
YARD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix

Note (4): GNU D Compiler.

Language support

The programming languages the generators recognize.

	C/C++	Java	C#	VB / VBScript	Delphi / Pascal	Ada	D	IDL	.NET¹	Access	Fortran
ApiGen	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Autoduck	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BI Documenter	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
classdoc	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
CppDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DB Manual	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
DBDesc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
DBScribe	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Ddoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
devscribe	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Doc-O-Matic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
DOC++	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Document! X	C++/CLI only	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Doxygen	Yes	Yes	Yes	No³	No³	No	Partial	Yes	No	No	Yes
Epydoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
fpdoc	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
GenHelp	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Haddock	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
HeaderDoc	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Help Generator	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
HyperSQL	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Imagix 4D	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Javadoc	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
jGrouseDoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
JSDoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
JsDoc Toolkit	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
KDOC	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Natural Docs	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial	No	No	No	No	Partial
NDoc	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
phpDocumentor	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
phpSimpleDoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Project Analyzer	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
RDoc	Partial	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ROBODoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
TwinText	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Universal Report	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
VBDOX	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
VSdocman	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
YARD	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
	C/C++	Java	C#	VB / VBScript	Delphi / Pascal	Ada	D	IDL	.NET¹	Access	Fortran

	PHP	Perl	Python	Ruby	JavaScript	ActionScript	PL/SQL	Tcl	Haskell	Any With Comments²
ApiGen	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Autoduck	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BI Documenter	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
classdoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
CppDoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DB Manual	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DBScribe	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Ddoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
devscribe	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Doc-O-Matic	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
DOC++	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Document! X	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Doxygen	Yes	No³	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Epydoc	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
fpdoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
GenHelp	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Haddock	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
HeaderDoc	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
HyperSQL	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Imagix 4D	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Javadoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
jGrouseDoc	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
JSDoc	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
JsDoc Toolkit	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
KDOC	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Natural Docs	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial	No	Yes
NDoc	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
phpDocumentor	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
phpSimpleDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Project Analyzer	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
RDoc	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
ROBODoc	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
ThimbleDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
TwinText	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Universal Report	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
VBDOX	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
VSdocman	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
YARD	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
	PHP	Perl	Python	Ruby	JavaScript	ActionScript	PL/SQL	Tcl	Haskell	Any With Comments²

Note (1): .NET is not a programming language, but is listed here for convenience.

Note (2): Generators listed here can be extended to support any language that has comments.

Note (3): Though not supported as a native input language, Doxygen can be extended through the use of filters. Examples include Visual Basic, VB.NET, Perl, and Pascal:

Input formats

The input formats the generators can read.

	Text	Binary
ApiGen	Yes	No
Autoduck	Yes	No
BI Documenter	No	Yes
DB Manual	No	Yes
classdoc	No	Yes
CppDoc	Yes	No
DBDesc	No	Yes
DBScribe	No	Yes
Ddoc	Yes	No
devscribe	No	Yes
Doc-O-Matic	Yes	No
DOC++	Yes	No (except Java class files)
Document! X	Yes	Yes
Doxygen	Yes	No
Epydoc	Yes	No
fpdoc	Yes	No
GenHelp	Yes	No
Haddock	Yes	No
HeaderDoc	Yes	No
Help Generator	Yes	Yes
HyperSQL	Yes	No
IDLdoc	Yes	No (except for .sav files)
Imagix 4D	Yes	No
Javadoc	Yes	No
jGrouseDoc	Yes	No
JSDoc	Yes	No
JsDoc Toolkit	Yes	No
KDOC	Yes	No
Natural Docs	Yes	No
NDoc	No	Yes
Plain Old Documentation	Yes	No
phpDocumentor	Yes	No
phpSimpleDoc	Yes	No
Project Analyzer	Yes	Yes
RDoc	Yes	No
ROBODoc	Yes	No
TwinText	Yes	Yes
Universal Report	Yes	No
VBDOX	Yes	No
VSdocman	Yes	No
YARD	Yes	No
	Text	Binary

Output formats

The output formats the generators can write.

	HTML	CHM	RTF	PDF	LaTeX	PostScript	man pages	DocBook	XML
ApiGen	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Autoduck	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
BI Documenter	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
classdoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
CppDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DB Manual	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DBDesc	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
DBScribe	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Ddoc	Yes	Yes⁴	No	Yes⁴	Yes⁴	Yes⁴	Yes⁴	No	Yes⁴
devscribe	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Doc-O-Matic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
DOC++	Yes	No	No	Yes⁷	Yes	Yes⁷	No	No	No
Document! X	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Doxygen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Epydoc	Yes	No	No	Yes	Indirectly⁵	Indirectly⁵	No	No	No
fpdoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
GenHelp	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Haddock	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	No
HeaderDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Help Generator	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
HyperSQL	Yes⁸	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No⁸
IDLdoc	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Imagix 4D	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Javadoc	Yes	Indirectly⁶	Indirectly⁶	Indirectly⁶	Indirectly⁶	Indirectly⁶	Indirectly⁶	Indirectly⁶	Indirectly⁶
jGrouseDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
JSDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
JsDoc Toolkit	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes+JSON
KDOC	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Natural Docs	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
NDoc	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
phpDocumentor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
phpSimpleDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Project Analyzer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Sandcastle	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
RDoc	Yes	Yes⁹	No	No	No	No	Indirectly¹⁰	No	Yes⁹
ROBODoc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ThimbleDoc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
TwinText	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Universal Report	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
VBDOX	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
VSdocman	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
YARD	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
	HTML	CHM	RTF	PDF	LaTeX	PostScript	man pages	DocBook	XML

Note (4): Ddoc has a macro system which can be customized to output any desired format. CHM, groff (manpages), XHTML, XML, and LaTeX (so PostScript and PDF) were tested. They are not currently included in the standard distribution. Standard HTML output also is generated using macros and can be redefined.

Note (5): Though not officially supported as an output format, Epydoc uses LaTeX and PostScript as intermediate steps to produce the final PDF documentation.

Note (6): Via Doclets from Third Parties.

Note (7): DOC++ outputs LaTeX and includes templates to enable conversion to PDF or PostScript with the appropriate latex tools. Required tools however are not included with DOC++.

Note (8): HyperSQL can output UnitTests (which can be embedded with the JavaDoc like description) as XML

Note (9): RDoc currently only provides generators for CHM and XML documents in the RDoc version provided as part of the Ruby 1.9 Core.

Note (10): RDoc generates documentation for RI, which is Ruby's version of the Unix man pages.

Other features

	possibility of extended customization	generated diagrams	highlighting and linking of generated doc	parameter types extracted
ApiGen	Customizable Latte-based templates		cross reference to generated documentation, and to php.net function reference	Yes
Autoduck
BI Documenter
classdoc
CppDoc
DB Manual
DBDesc	full customization for all output formats using XSL templates and a built-in designer		All SQL code syntax highlighted	Yes
DBScribe
Ddoc	with macros
devscribe	Via code, XSLT, CSS and web.config		Looks and reads just like code with syntax coloring in Visual Studio style.	Supports linking from all member and method parameter types.
Doc-O-Matic	full customization for all output formats, template for MSDN and other lookalike output, custom XMLDoc/JavaDoc tags	local, module and global graphical class hierarchies, local text class hierarchies	fully cross linked project wide, automatic inter-project links, automatic links into framework documentation like MSDN, Borland/CodeGear Help	types extracted and linked
DOC++
Document! X	customizable HTML based templates, custom comment tags	linked graphical object relationship diagrams	internal links and links to .NET framework documentation	types extracted and linked
Doxygen	with XSLT	caller and callee graphs, dependency graphs, inheritance diagrams, collaboration diagrams
Epydoc
Haddock			Yes	Yes
HeaderDoc	Custom headers, footers, code coloring, and other CSS styles in individual pages. Project-wide TOC is generated from a user-defined template.		Configurable syntax highlighting/coloring with automatic linking to symbols in declaration, ability to manual link to symbols in discussion, etc.	Provides warnings if tagged parameters do not match code, parsed parameters included in XML output and Doxygen-style tagfile (-D flag in 8.7). Partial C preprocessor support with -p flag. Preliminary support for #if/#ifdef control over documentation through an external utility (not currently installed by default).
Help Generator
HyperSQL	custom CSS, options via configuration file, optional central to do/bug lists (items extracted from javadoc comments)	Pie Charts for code statistics, object relationship diagrams (dependency graphs)	fully cross linked project wide for views, packages, package functions, and package procedures; optional inclusion of source code with syntax highlighting; links to javadoc generated references as well as directly to the code lines; code statistics	Provides warnings if tagged parameters count does not match code
IDLdoc	customizable through user-defined templates and stylesheets		Yes	Yes
Imagix 4D	customizable through style sheets and CSS	linked hierarchy and dependency graphs for function calls, variable sets and reads, class inheritance and interface, and file includes and interface, intra-function flow charts	fully cross linked project wide, including all hierarchy and dependency graphs, metrics tables, source code snippets, and source files	full semantic analysis of source code, including parameter types, condition compilation directives, macro expansions
Javadoc
jGrouseDoc	With XSLT		cross reference to generated documentation	Yes
JSDoc				Yes
JsDoc Toolkit				Yes
KDOC
Natural Docs
NDoc
phpDocumentor	Smarty-based templates	class inheritance diagrams	cross reference to generated documentation, and to php.net function reference	Yes
phpSimpleDoc		class / interface inheritance	Yes	Yes
Project Analyzer	custom CSS	File dependencies, inheritance, control flow, data flow, variable access, class instantiation, data declaration, Form.Show order, procedure calls, project dependencies, file belongs to project, class cohesion.	Cross-referenced source code	types extracted and linked, source code level linkage
RDoc
ROBODoc
TwinText	20 CSS styles. Well documented CSS facilitates customization.	ASCII diagramming and picture importing.	Table of Contents, Index, and per-page cross referencing.	Method/Function parameters extracted and linked.
Universal Report	customizable HTML based templates, custom comment tags	linked graphical object relationship diagrams	internal links between routines and objects	data types extracted and linked
VBDOX
VSdocman	full customization for all output formats, templates for MSDN-like output, custom XML comment tags	linked graphical class diagrams, class inheritance tree	internal links and links to .NET framework documentation	types extracted and linked
YARD	customizable Ruby templates	class diagrams with extra tool	internal classes/modules cross-referenced and Ruby source highlighted
	possibility of extended customization	generated diagrams	highlighting and linking of generated doc	parameter types extracted