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Sphinx vs MkDocs: catalog facts
Sphinx	MkDocs
Free Free and open source under the BSD 2-Clause licence.	Free The open-source application is available without a license fee.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Strong cross-referencing, including across projects Outputs HTML, PDF via LaTeX, ePub and Texinfo	One YAML file and a folder of Markdown produce a complete site Built-in live-reload server while writing
reStructuredText has a learning curve Requires a Python environment	Output is static, so search and versioning depend on the theme and plugins
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: BSD-2-Clause	License: BSD-2-Clause
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

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