New check

Comparison

Read the Docs vs ReadMe

Read the Docs and ReadMe both land on Depends.

Read the Docs

readthedocs.org

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy if your docs live in Git and your team can debug a build; the free community tier is excellent for open source and Sphinx projects.

Read the full report

ReadMe

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy it if you ship a public API and want polished, interactive developer docs with references, guides, and changelogs.

Read the full report

Read the Docs versus ReadMe
Compare	Read the Docs	ReadMe
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	Python and Sphinx projects	API-first SaaS teams
Who it's not for	Non-technical writers wanting WYSIWYG editing	Solo devs with one small internal API . overkill
Privacy	No breaches reported; two patched GitHub advisories plus one XSS in a companion Sphinx extension.^⁸	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.¹⁶
Support quality	No reliable evidence in sources reviewed	No support evidence found
Public sentiment	Open-source users value the free hosting, but posts cite build, webhook, and navigation friction.^⁵	Ratings are strong but review volume is small, and the most visible quote is a testimonial on ReadMe's own homepage.¹⁵
Biggest gotcha	No public pricing numbers in reviewed sources; trial then paid subscription^²	Pricing not published in reviewed sources; expect to contact sales for real numbers¹⁶

Pick Read the Docs when

Python and Sphinx projects
Open source maintainers
API reference docs
Docs-as-code teams

When Read the Docs is not a fit

Non-technical writers wanting WYSIWYG editing
Marketing or HR knowledge bases . use Notion or Confluence
One-page or five-page docs . overkill
Teams unwilling to debug failed builds

Pick ReadMe when

API-first SaaS teams
Developer-facing products needing interactive API references
Teams publishing guides and changelogs alongside APIs
Companies optimizing docs for AI agents

When ReadMe is not a fit

Solo devs with one small internal API . overkill
Teams needing just a simple static docs page
Anyone wanting transparent self-serve pricing upfront

Sources

Read the Docs: Full featured documentation deploymentabout.readthedocs.com
official
Plans and pricingreadthedocs.com
official
About Read the Docs (bootstrapped company)docs.readthedocs.com
official
Readthedocs Products on G2g2.com
review
Challenges with ReadTheDocs . Stack Overflowstackoverflow.com
review
Very poor navigation in new readthedocs builds . GitHubgithub.com
review
Alternatives to Read the Docs . Reddit r/Pythonreddit.com
review
GHSA-rqfv-8rrx-prmh: API V2 write access advisorygithub.com
security
GHSA-v4vm-q9fw-x237: XSS in Read the Docs for Businessgithub.com
security
XSS in readthedocs-sphinx-search . Snyksecurity.snyk.io
security
Read the Docs Uses EthicalAdsethicalads.io
news
Read the Docs . Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
news
Companies that use Read the Docs (317) . TheirStacktheirstack.com
news
Announcing Read the Docs for Business (2014)ericholscher.com
news
ReadMe homepagereadme.com
official
ReadMe product security pagereadme.com
security