Best Stoplight Alternatives will be dissed in this article. Specialized technologies are necessary for API development teams to generate their documentation. The lack of documentation impedes the adoption of your API since it prevents developers from understanding and using it. This means that in addition to specialised workflows that make the process of describing your API easier, documentation is essential.
Top 6 Best Stoplight Alternatives In 2024
In this article, you can know about Stoplight Alternatives here are the details below;
A tool that supports both public and private APIs is necessary. Additionally, you frequently require the ability to interact with OpenAPI, a standard API definition, and integrations with other documentation tooling. Some solutions even save you a tonne of time and effort by automatically creating your documentation using OpenAPI.
Stoplight is a popular platform for API design, development, and documentation. Because of its abundance of capabilities, it’s a good option for people who wish to design and document their own APIs using a tool that handles most of the labor-intensive work, giving their users a far better developer experience.
What Is Stoplight?
With a collaborative, API-first design, Stoplight is an API documentation tool that assists you in creating high-quality APIs. This implies that team members, both technical and non-technical, can collaborate to produce highly reusable, documented APIs that enhance the developer experience.
By providing developers with quick mock servers, interactive documentation, tutorials, and code samples in numerous widely used languages, you can increase the adoption of your API using Stoplight. Stoplight is used by businesses and organisations to log modifications, exchange APIs, expand API programmes, and manage dependencies.
Because Stoplight recognises that its users utilise a variety of Git providers, it offers connectors with GitHub and GitLab, allowing you to easily work with repositories that mesh well with your current Git workflows. Using Stoplight in conjunction with familiar technologies, teams can create incredibly effective workflows.
What does Stoplight offer in API document?
Development teams may create and describe the best APIs for their end customers with the help of Stoplight’s many features.
OpenAPI-powered interactive documentation
Your interactive documentation for developers wishing to test your API is powered by Stoplight using OpenAPI. The documentation allows developers to test out API endpoints and is constantly updated. Developers are far more inclined to use your API if they can test it as they learn.
Code samples
To promote the use of your API by giving developers ready-made examples that let them test it out, Stoplight assists you in offering code samples in popular languages including Curl, Python, Ruby, and Java. Developers testing your API with code samples save a lot of time and effort.
Markdown editor
You may use Stoplight to generate reference material, tutorials, and quickstart guides using Markdown for quickly updated content. You can use Stoplight’s own version of Markdown to incorporate JSON Schema examples. Markdown is straightforward to understand and easy to use, even for non-developers.
Hosting (private and public)
With fine-grained roles and permissions, you can host both your private and public APIs in the same workspace, giving you complete control over who can view your documentation. To make sure that only the appropriate individuals can consider or interact with your API documentation, you can modify access at any moment.
Customization
In addition to hosting your developer hub on your own domain to facilitate developer accessibility, Stoplight provides customisation options that you can leverage to brand your hub with flexible theming options. Hubs that complement your unique brand appear more credible and professional.
Search
Your developers may locate the endpoints, reference documents, and schemas they require to make sure the API is functioning properly by using a hub-wide deep search. Developers can use the search instead of having to go through a tonne of documentation.
Limitations of Stoplight as a Document Tool
Even though Stoplight is a fantastic tool for documentation, it does have some significant drawbacks.
No automated versioning and charge tracking
Stoplight is rather limiting when it comes to tracking changes and navigating between multiple versions of your documentation. It is difficult to identify the person(s) responsible for specific changes in earlier iterations. Teams that need to work together or go back to earlier iterations of their documentation will find this problematic.
No Native features for Multilingual translation
Stoplight makes it hard for you to publish your API documentation in several languages. Limiting your API to a single language will cut down on the number of users you may potentially reach.
UI can be cumbersome to use
Compared to similar programmes, a number of users have expressed that they believe the user interface (UI) to be complicated and difficult to understand. A clunky user interface causes you to lose time developing your API by sending emails or making calls to the support staff.
Problems pushing to GitHub
Because of improper integration, several users stop contributing their documentation to GitHub. When one of the main reasons API teams select Stoplight is its connection with Git providers, this is a significant limitation.
Pricing Becomes Prohibitive with the more APIs you have
The cost of adding users and projects increases as you move into the enterprise plan, discouraging smaller teams from using Stoplight and forcing them to utilise the free version instead.
6 Best Stoplight Alternatives to consider
1. Document360
Look no further than Document360 if you’re looking for an API documentation solution. With the help of Document360, you may import your OpenAPI specification and have your documentation created automatically. Everyone can cooperate efficiently on describing their APIs by using Document360, which is simple to understand and use. Users can work rapidly in Markdown to produce highly polished documentation.
API documentation is easy to generate and maintain for both internal and external users, which makes development fun. You have complete control over how your API documentation is developed, so it can perfectly reflect your branding and help your business grow.
Document360 automatically updates your documentation whenever your OpenAPI specification file changes, ensuring that you always have the most recent version. Additionally, you may build unique pages that function as tutorials, authentication, and getting started, and the system will maintain any manual modifications you make.
You may generate multilingual documentation using Document360 by linking it to platforms such as Crowdin, which allows it to translate content into multiple languages. By selecting Document360, you can provide your developer audience with a very polished experience.
My team can easily develop, review, and publish documentation for software instructions, newsletters, and other materials with Document360’s user-friendly interface. I really appreciate how responsive the Document360 staff is; they schedule frequent meetings with me to go over upgrades or explain how to utilise features that I’m not sure how to use. In addition, my customer success manager answers all of my questions very away. Before we selected Document360, I looked into a number of options, and I still think it’s the best fit for our requirements.
2. SwaggerHub
To develop and document your APIs, Stoplight may really be used in conjunction with SwaggerHub. Working with OpenAPI and AsyncAPI, it provides a single source of truth that lets you adhere to uniform design principles because it was created by the same team that created OpenAPI as Swagger. Teams desiring a wealth of capabilities, including private hosting, collaborative editing, forking, comparing, and merging, can use SwaggerHub. Additionally, SwaggerHub provides interfaces with BitBucket and GitHub, two of your favourite tools.
For handling the requirements for our API design and specification throughout its lifecycle, SwaggerHub is an excellent tool. It brings all of the Swagger tools—including API Editor, Validator, and Codegen—together on one platform so that we can work together efficiently to improve the functionality of our business operations. It simplifies the implementation logic for our remote service interactions and supports OpenAPI requirements for API management.
3. Postman
Despite being the most used API platform worldwide, Postman’s documentation choices are not as extensive as those of Document360. API development teams can use Postman’s numerous sophisticated tools to create, design, and manage their APIs. More than 25 million developers utilise it as the industry standard, and it offers complete support for the duration of the API lifespan. Postman is a complete API development solution because it can store and manage all API-related materials, including specs, documentation, workflow recipes, test cases and results, metrics, and more.
Postman’s intuitive design, which makes it very easy to use and navigate, is one of its unique features. The application’s basic, intuitive design makes developing, maintaining, and testing APIs easier. It also makes you feel welcome right away. Whether you are a rookie or experienced developer, Postman’s UI’s efficacy and ease of use significantly enhance productivity and speed up the API development process.
4. ReadMe
The primary goal of ReadMe is to assist you in producing interactive developer documentation for your API. They refer to the customised developer experience they provide as “hubs” for their API documentation. Through the documentation, developers may test what’s possible in their preferred language and make calls with your APIs. You may comprehend the usage trends of your API and make data-driven development decisions with the help of extensive analytics.
It is really easy to use, simple to understand, and incredibly powerful all at the same time. The ability to create several divisions and levels of information within your documents using a molecular design is something I find really appealing. Another fantastic thing about Readme, in my opinion, is how simple it is to add anything other than text (such as photos, tables, and code samples). It’s fantastic, for instance, that you can have different iterations of the code samples and the anticipated outcome.
5. Slate
Slate is an API documentation static site generator. It is easy to use and produces clear, concise documentation that is modelled after the industry-standard Stripe API docs. Slate writes and publishes API documentation in Markdown, allowing developers to work with a language they are accustomed to. GitHub pages can be used to host intelligent and responsive API documentation that is integrated with GitHub.
I prefer Slate for API-specific documentation since I appreciate the code sample part on the right. I used Slate to transform our outdated, woefully inadequate Swagger setup into a fully functional framework that has drastically decreased the amount of support emails we receive about API queries. Also check How To Use Gmail Automation For Customer Support
6. Redocly
With the help of Redocly, a straightforward docs-as-code tool, you can document your API using the same tools that programmers use to write code. With the help of three panels, a try-it console, and produced code examples, you can easily build stunning API reference documentation. Redocly interfaces with the majority of source control systems, allowing you to make sure that your documentation is always current with the most recent release. You can host your documentation on a custom domain of your choosing and utilise the layouts and themes that complement your brand.
Redocly lets you turn a basic OpenAPI definition into a branded portal with current, interactive API documentation by offering you a package of services and features that are appropriately tailored for the entire API lifespan.
Wrapping Up
Although Stoplight is undoubtedly a well-liked solution for API documentation, astute users would undoubtedly want to take Document360 into consideration as an alternative. Writing and publishing API documentation is made easier with Document360’s clear workflows and pricing. You can shorten the amount of time it takes to create complete, working API documentation by having documentation that is automatically created from your specification file.
Without accompanying documentation, no API is complete. You can’t deliver the greatest developer experience and promote API adoption among your user base without API-specific features and procedures. With Document360, you can transform your API documentation from inadequate to visually stunning and engaging for your users.
