Mintlify, without the bill.
Same quality output. Open source. Self-hosted. No $300/month Pro tier for docs that should be static HTML.
Feature by feature.
Same capabilities. No monthly bill. Static HTML you own and deploy yourself.
| Mintlify | Sourcey | |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAPI reference | Native | Native |
| Rich components | Yes | Yes |
| Static HTML output | No | Yes |
| Zero JS runtime | No | Yes |
| Self-hosted | No | Yes |
| Config format | JSON | TypeScript |
| Dark mode | Yes | Yes |
| Search | Built-in | Built-in |
| Pricing | Free (limited) → $300/mo | Free |
What you give up on Mintlify.
$300/mo Pro tier
Mintlify Pro costs $300 a month. For that you get hosted documentation, custom components, and their build pipeline. Sourcey generates the same quality output — OpenAPI reference, rich markdown components, dark mode, instant search — and costs nothing. The CLI is free. The output is static HTML. Deploy it on Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages, your own nginx, anywhere.
Mintlify raised $18M in Series A from a16z in September 2024. That money has to come from somewhere. 20% of a recent YC batch uses Mintlify, which tells you the product is good — but the pricing reflects VC-scale ambitions, not the cost of generating static pages.
Closed source, vendor lock-in
Mintlify uses a proprietary JSON config format (mint.json), proprietary components, and proprietary hosting. Your docs live on their infrastructure. If you decide to leave, you're rewriting your config, replacing custom components, and migrating your content to a new structure. There's no export button that gives you a portable site.
Mintlify's component library is closed source. Their MDX extensions are non-standard. A Mintlify project can't be built by any other tool. Sourcey uses standard markdown with directive extensions that degrade to plain text in any renderer. Your sourcey.config.ts and markdown files are the entire project — move them anywhere.
No self-hosting
Mintlify is SaaS-only. Your documentation is served from their infrastructure. You can't run it on your own servers, behind your own firewall, or in an air-gapped environment. For regulated industries — healthcare, finance, government, defence — this can be a dealbreaker.
If Mintlify has an outage, your docs have an outage. If they change their terms, you comply or migrate. If they shut down, your docs disappear. Sourcey builds to a directory of static HTML files. Those files work forever, on any web server, with no external dependency.
No static output
Mintlify doesn't give you a build artifact. There's no dist/ folder, no HTML files you can inspect, no output you can commit to a repo or serve from a CDN you control. The build happens on their side, the hosting happens on their side, and the resulting site is theirs to serve.
One command. Five minutes.
Init scaffolds the project. It auto-detects OpenAPI specs in the directory.
Init
Creates sourcey.config.ts and detects any OpenAPI specs or Doxyfiles in the project.
npx sourcey initAdd your content
Markdown with frontmatter. Directives for tabs, callouts, cards.
---
title: Getting Started
---
## Install the SDK
:::tabs
::tab{title="npm"}
```bash
npm install @yourapi/sdk
```
::tab{title="pip"}
```bash
pip install yourapi
```
:::Configure
Navigation, tabs, spec path, theme. TypeScript with autocomplete.
import { defineConfig } from "sourcey";
export default defineConfig({
name: "Your API",
navigation: {
tabs: [
{
tab: "Documentation",
groups: [
{
group: "Getting Started",
pages: ["introduction", "quickstart"],
},
],
},
{
tab: "API Reference",
slug: "api",
openapi: "./openapi.yaml",
},
],
},
});Build
Outputs static HTML to dist/. Deploy wherever.
$ npx sourcey build
Sourcey — building documentation site
Pages: 14
Output: dist
Time: 1.2sCommon questions.
Is Sourcey really free?
Yes. Sourcey is open source under MIT. The CLI, the build output, and all features are free. There are no premium tiers that gate functionality. You self-host the output on any infrastructure you choose.
Does Sourcey support the same components as Mintlify?
Sourcey supports callouts, tabs, code groups, cards, accordions, and steps via markdown directives. The syntax is standard markdown with directive extensions, not a proprietary component format.
Can I use my existing OpenAPI spec?
Sourcey supports OpenAPI 3.0, OpenAPI 3.1, and Swagger 2.0 (auto-converted at build time). Point your config at a YAML or JSON file, or a URL. Code samples are auto-generated in curl, JavaScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Rust, and more.
How do I migrate from Mintlify?
Copy your markdown files into a Sourcey project, point openapi at your spec in sourcey.config.ts, and run npx sourcey build. Mintlify's MDX components don't transfer directly — you'll replace their custom tags with Sourcey's markdown directives, which cover the same functionality.
Does Sourcey have a hosted option?
No. Sourcey is a build tool. It outputs static HTML that you deploy yourself. If you want managed hosting, Mintlify does that. If you want to own your docs and your infrastructure, Sourcey does that.
Own your docs.
Open source. Self-host it, fork it, ship it on your own infrastructure. No account required.
Fork the demo →