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mdBook vs Sphinx: catalog facts
mdBook	Sphinx
Free Free and open source.	Free Free and open source under the BSD 2-Clause licence.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Builds a complete static site from plain Markdown Maintained by the Rust project with an active history	Strong cross-referencing, including across projects Outputs HTML, PDF via LaTeX, ePub and Texinfo
Command line only Aimed at web output rather than EPUB or print	reStructuredText has a learning curve Requires a Python environment
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MPL-2.0	License: BSD-2-Clause
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 1, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.