Ever wondered how to make your API stand out in a crowded market? The secret lies in exceptional documentation and the right tools that can make a difference. You can automate the creation of comprehensive documentation, expedite the process, and provide developers with an engaging experience with the correct documentation tool. But how can you pick the ideal choice for your requirements when there are so many to select from?
In this article, we will talk about API documentation and its tools. We will highlight the key features and pricing details of the 10 best API documentation tools, assisting you in finding the tool that might suit your business.
What is API Documentation?
API documentation is detailed technical content and instructions that explain everything about an API and its services. This instruction manual document is a collection of references, tutorials, code examples, screenshots, and anything else that describes to developers how an API should be used and what it can be used for, allowing it to play a crucial role in expediting the understanding, adoption, and successful implementation of APIs. API documentation serves as a technical reference and user guide, designed to be both human- and machine-readable.
Since creating API documentation is a tedious and complex process, we require some tools to make this process smooth and quick. Hence, we can use API documentation tools that help developers create, manage, and publish comprehensive and user-friendly API documentation. With these tools, you can customize, update, and share your documentation effortlessly.
Let us now talk about the 10 best API documentation tools.
List of 10 Best API Documentation Tools
1. SwaggerHub
SwaggerHub is an integrated API design and documentation platform that combines features from Swagger UI, Swagger Editor, and many other parts of Swagger. This tool is designed for teams to drive consistency across the API development workflow and expedite the process with OpenAI and AsyncAPI. It is a comprehensive API documentation tool with interactive documentation generation, API exploration, mock server support, etc.
Key Features:
- Auto-generate Swagger UI documentation
- Import and host OAS definitions
- Sync designs from SwaggerHub
- Comprehensive onboarding guides
- Editor with smart error feedback
- Style validators
- API mocking
- Domains for storing, reusing, and referencing common OAS syntax across multiple APIs
- Real-time comments
- Collaboration tools
- Seamless integration
- Central repository
- Automated notifications
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Team: $29/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Website: https://swagger.io/tools/swaggerhub/
2. ReadMe
ReadMe is one of the best API documentation tools, which makes it easy for engineers, PMs, and technical writers to publish content or make changes without coding. It is an easy-to-use and cloud-based tool with analytics and feedback for API documentation, providing insights to improve your documentation. ReadMe boasts a strong drag-and-drop editor, OpenAPI support, a rich interface, extensive metrics documentation, etc.
Key Features:
- OpenAPI compatible
- Real-time API request logs
- Hub login flow for developers
- Content variables
- Code snippet builder
- Markdown editor and embeds
- Suggested edits
- Hub versioning
- CLI tool
- Discussion forums
- Suggested edits
- GraphQL support
- Unified navigation
- Branding control
- Metrics
- Community
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Startup: $99/month
- Business: $399/month
- Enterprise: $3000+/month
Website: https://readme.com/
3. Postman
Postman is a popular API platform for API management and documentation that simplifies the API lifecycle and streamlines collaboration. The collaboration features allow you to create shared, secured, controlled spaces for teams and enhance developer productivity by bringing API producers and consumers together. You can create human-readable documentation for developers, testers, product managers, partners, and API users.
Key Features:
- API client
- API design using OpenAPI, RAML, GraphQL, or SOAP formats
- API testing
- Reporting and monitoring
- Mock servers
- Real-time collaborate
- Expert debugging
- Built-in support for variables
- Manage authentication
- Powerful data visualization
- AI-powered support
- Speed up your work with templates
- Manage user access
- Integrations
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Basic: $19/month
- Professional: $39/month
- Enterprise: $49/month (billed annually)
Website: https://www.postman.com/
4. Document360
Document360 is a one-stop solution for creating, sharing, and managing online documents, API documentation, user manuals, and SPOs. It is an AI-powered platform for technical writers, developers, and product owners. You made your documentation process effortless and efficient with the user-friendly interface and robust features of Document360.
Key Features:
- Workspace
- In-line Comments
- API Reference
- Try It
- Advanced Search
- Editors (markdown support, code block, callouts, HTML editor, embed images and videos, hyperlinks, tables, full screen, lists, auto-save, and file attachments)
- Branding (landing page, advanced customization, custom logo, header and footer navigation, color theme, menus, and smart bars)
- Analytics
- Security (team roles, private documentation, custom domain mapping, backup and restore, SSO, cookie consent, and IP restriction)
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Standard: $199/month
- Professional: $299/month
- Business: $399/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Website: https://document360.com/
5. Redocly
Redocly is an API documentation tool that brings a set of DocOps to your Docs-like-code practice, helping throughout the API lifecycle and workflows. Designed for both developers and writers, this easy-to-use platform boasts a developer portal, which is a one-stop shop for all your API documentation, how-to guides, tutorials, examples, and code samples. They also provide reference documents for your API documentation and support OpenAPI and CLI.
Key Features:
- Reunite (seamless API collaboration, visual reviews, editor, remote content, deploys, and Git integration)
- Revel (customization and styling, branding, integrates search, and landing pages)
- Redoc (auto-generated code samples, mock servers, nested schemas with deep links, OpenAPI, feedback-friendly, polymorphism, and discriminator support)
- Reef (API discovery and governance, scorecards, API scout, and API management)
Pricing:
- Pro: $10/month
- Enterprise: $24/month
- Enterprise+: Custom price
Website: https://redocly.com/
6. DapperDox
DapperDox is an open-source and open API documentation tool that seamlessly combines your specifications with documentation, guides, and diagrams, which can be authored in GitHub Flavoured Markdown. It works with OAS 2.0 and OAS 3.0, making the API documentation process easy and quick.
Key Features:
- Open API
- Multiple specifications
- Author full documentation in GitHub Flavoured Markdown.
- API explorer
- Automatically generated reference documentation
- Site integration
- Multi theme
- Customization
- Proxy your developer platform
Pricing:
Free to use
Website: http://dapperdox.io/
7. Stoplight
Stoplight is a “design-first” API documentation tool that boasts great themes and design features to power your complete API design lifecycle. With an intuitive interface and thoughtful features for design, collaboration, and integration, the tool is suitable for developers, program leaders, and tech executives.
Key Features:
- Easily design and document APIs
- Encourage consistency and reuse
- Enhanced collaboration
- Maintain a central source of truth
- API documentation with a delightful developer experience
- OpenAPI-powered mock servers
- Automated API testing
- API governance and mentoring
- API mocking
- Code generation for client SDKs and server code
- CI/CD deployment
- Risk reduction and improve ROI
Pricing:
- Basic: $49/month
- Startup: $129/month
- Pro Team: $399/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Website: https://stoplight.io/
8. Theneo
Generate Stripe-like API documents in seconds with Theneo, an AI-powered API documentation tool for creating stunning and engaging documents. It is an easy-to-use tool for developers and non-developers, allowing them to generate summaries and documents effortlessly.
Key Features:
- Automatically update documentation when code changes.
- Extensions are available for Github, Gitlab, Bitbucket, VS Code, Postman, and more.
- Customization and branding
- API reference guide
- Import API collections
- Feedback and analytics
- SEO management
- ChatGPT search
- Automatic API changelog
- Advanced access management
- API logs
- “Try It” API playground
Pricing:
- Starter: $0
- Business: $150/month
- Growth: $450/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Website: https://www.theneo.io/
9. Slate
Slate is one of the best API documentation tools for writing insightful and customer-friendly API documentation in Markdown. This open-source tool allows you to customize and maintain the documentation for a professional appearance. You can write code samples and documents in multiple languages with Slate’s multilingual support.
Key Features:
- Clean, intuitive design
- Everything on a single page
- Out-of-the-box syntax highlighting
- Write code samples in multiple languages
- RTL Support
- Slate is just a Markdown
- GitHub integration
- No configuration is required
Pricing:
To know about the pricing, please connect with the team at Slate.
Website: https://github.com/slatedocs/slate
10. Apidog
Apidog is a comprehensive API documentation tool that boasts API design, debugging, development, mock, and testing tools to support the entire API lifecycle. This tool helps R&D teams implement best practices for API design-first development.
Key Features:
- API-developing toolkit
- Automated testing tool
- Online API documentation
- Smart mock server
- Automated testing tool
- User-friendly interface
- Online debugging environment
- Extensibility and plugins
Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Basic: $12/month
- Professional: $24/month
- Enterprise: $27/month (billed annually)
- Enterprise On-premises: Custom price
Website: https://apidog.com/
End Note:
All these 10 are the best documentation tools that cater to different needs, from automated documentation generation to interactive guides and collaborative platforms. The right documentation tool will assist you in creating perfect API documentation and streamline the process. These tools will help you to reduce the manual tasks and create human-readable documentation. Take your API documentation to the next level by trying one of these tools today and see the difference.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
How do I choose an API documentation tool?
To choose an API documentation tool, consider the following factors:
- Seamless Integration
- Supports writing articles
- Powerful search and filtering
- Feedback mechanism and user metrics
- Authoring tools, collaborative editing, and built-in hosting
- Ease of use and customization
- Code Snippets
- API Mocking
- Support
- Security
- Pricing
- Extensibility
Why to use an API documentation tool?
An API documentation tool will assist you in the below-given ways:
- Autogenerate reference documents from API definitions
- Organize and structure documentation for easy understanding
- Update reference documents when source code changes
- Keep track of documentation iterations
- Manage projects
- Collaborate with team members
- Design, style, and customize documentation
- Gain user insight through metrics
- Provides examples of user cases based on real-life scenarios of the API
- Help developers try out the APIs
- Strong API monitoring
How do you write good API documentation?
Keep the following things in mind while writing API documentation:
- Adopt clear language
- Detailed information about every endpoint, operation, and resource
- Authentication instructions
- Include reference documentation
- Put someone in charge of the docs
- Examples of common requests and responses
- Check for errors
- Keep the documentation up-to-date
- Incorporate documentation into processes
- Use industry-standard layout
- Write for a range of audiences
What are the different types of API documentation tools?
The following are some different types of API documentation tools:
- Integrated API Development Environments (IDEs)
- Static Site Generators
- API Specification Tools
- Code Annotation Tools
- Interactive Documentation Tools
- Content Management Systems (CMS)
- Version Control-Based Tools
- Collaborative Documentation Platforms
Name some free and best API documentation tools.
SwaggerHub, DapperDox, Apidog, Document360, and Postman are some of the free and best API documentation tools that allow you to streamline your API documentation process.
