The ReadMe
alternative for
builders on a budget.
API-first documentation with interactive playgrounds. Dokly is a visual MDX editor with AI that generates whole doc sites, custom domains, auto-generated llms.txt, and flat pricing starting at $0.
Free forever · No credit card · Ship in 5 minutes
What is Dokly?
Dokly is a documentation platform for shipping beautiful MDX docs without git. Visual editor, AI writing, auto-generated llms.txt, and custom domains from $19/month. Built as a simpler, cheaper ReadMe alternative — Dokly Pro is $49/month vs ReadMe's $250.
Teams switching from ReadMe to Dokly typically migrate in an afternoon. Pages are written in a WYSIWYG editor with slash commands and AI inline edits, with full MDX components — callouts, tabs, steps, code groups, accordions. Every published site is server-side rendered, ships with a machine-readable llms.txt manifest, and is indexed by ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and Perplexity. Pricing is flat: Free $0, Starter $19, Pro $49, Scale $99 — no per-seat surprises. Built with Next.js 15 and Supabase, deployed on Vercel, with sub-100ms page loads via static generation and on-demand revalidation. Most teams ship their first docs site in under 10 minutes.
ReadMe is the grown-up tool for API docs. Metrics, developer portals, API key management — the whole enterprise dev-portal story is real.
Pro is $250/month billed annually ($3,000/yr). Enterprise jumps to $3,000+/month. For an indie hacker or seed-stage startup shipping a v1 API, it's overkill.
Why switch
Why teams pick Dokly over ReadMe
Startup-friendly pricing
ReadMe's paid plans are priced for funded companies. Dokly Pro is $49/month — you get an API Playground, custom domain, and analytics without a sales call.
Ship in an afternoon
ReadMe's setup is deeper — you'll configure developer portals, metrics, API key flows. Dokly gets you from empty project to live API docs in under an hour.
AI-ready out of the box
llms.txt is auto-generated per site. Your API docs become citable by ChatGPT and Claude the day you publish.
MDX, not proprietary blocks
Write API guides in portable MDX with React components. Nothing locks you in — export your Markdown any time.
AI, done right
Docs that write themselves.
Docs AI agents can actually read.
Start with a paragraph describing your product. Dokly AI scaffolds the whole site. Every page ships with llms.txt so ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Cursor can cite you.
Generate a whole doc site from a brief
Describe your product in a paragraph. Dokly drafts the full site structure — quickstart, guides, API reference — as real MDX pages you can edit.
Generate individual pages on demand
Need a new page? Hit 'Generate with AI' in the editor, describe what it should cover, and get a draft in seconds. Edit in place — it's just MDX.
Improve writing in place
Rewrite for clarity, tighten prose, fix tone. Highlight a paragraph and the AI edits exactly that — not the whole page.
llms.txt, auto-generated
Every Dokly site exposes an llms.txt so ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Cursor can parse and cite your docs. No config, no plugin.
AI-powered search for readers
Pro tier gives readers an AI answer box on top of fuzzy search. Ask a question, get a cited answer pulled from your pages.
More coming
Semantic linking between pages, AI-drafted changelogs from git diffs, automated translation, and an /llms-full.txt endpoint. Shipping through Q2.
Side-by-side
Dokly vs ReadMe
We call the wins honestly — and the places ReadMe is still stronger.
| Feature |  Dokly | ReadMe |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Forever | Starter (free) |
| Pro plan | $49/mo | $250/mo (annual) |
| Enterprise floor | Custom | $3,000+/mo |
| Additional admin | Included | +$20/admin (Pro) |
| Custom domain | Pro ($49) | Starter (free tier) |
| API Playground | Pro | Included |
| OpenAPI / Swagger import | ||
| MDX + React | Full | Custom MDX components (Pro) |
| AI assistant | Built-in on all tiers | Ask AI add-on $150/mo |
| llms.txt | Auto-generated | Included |
| Branching & reviewsReadMe wins here | Pro | |
| API Metrics / usage dataReadMe wins here | ||
| SSO / OAuth | Enterprise |
What we ship
The six features you'll use every day
Visual MDX editor
Write in a Notion-style WYSIWYG that outputs clean MDX under the hood. No YAML frontmatter required, no build step, no Git dance.
Instant fuzzy search
Fuse.js-powered client-side search that works offline and runs in under 100ms. No external search index bill to worry about.
Custom domain, zero DNS pain
Add docs.yoursite.com on Pro. SSL provisions automatically. Wildcard subdomain routing means your docs ship on day one.
Built-in analytics
See which pages get read, which search queries return nothing, and where readers drop off. No third-party tracker to wire up.
Themes + custom CSS
Pick a preset, set your brand color, or go deep with custom CSS on Pro. Your docs look like your product, not a template.
API Playground
Drop in an OpenAPI / Swagger spec and get an interactive 'Try it' panel per endpoint — request bodies, auth, response preview, all of it.
Migrating
Moving from ReadMe
Honest take: there's no magic importer. It's a copy-paste job today. For most sites it takes an afternoon.
Export your pages
Pull your guides out of ReadMe as Markdown. Keep your OpenAPI spec handy — Dokly will re-import it for the Playground.
Import to Dokly
Paste guides into the Dokly editor. Upload your OpenAPI spec to auto-generate the interactive API Playground.
Brand + domain
Add your logo, brand color, and custom domain on Pro. SSL ships automatically. Flip DNS, you're live.
Moving a large site? Email support@dokly.co — we'll help you move it.
Pricing
Real numbers. No footnotes.
Pricing pulled from ReadMe's own pricing page on Apr 24, 2026.
Dokly ProReadMe Pro is $250/mo billed annually. Extra admins and the Ask AI add-on push the gap wider.
DoklyFlat ratePrices verified Apr 24, 2026 from readme.com/pricing.
FAQ
Questions we actually get
Ready to ship docs in an afternoon?
Start free, bring your MDX, flip your domain when you're ready. No sales call. No credit card.