The Read the Docs
alternative for
builders on a budget.
Open-source documentation hosting. 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
Read the Docs is a legend. Free hosting for open-source, Sphinx/MkDocs support, generations of Python docs live there. Respect.
Business tiers run $50–$250/month and the content format is still RST or Markdown-via-Sphinx. For modern frontend teams who want MDX and React, it's a rough fit.
Why switch
Why teams pick Dokly over Read the Docs
MDX, not reStructuredText
Read the Docs is Sphinx-first — RST is the native format. Dokly is MDX-first, which is where JavaScript ecosystems live today.
No build, no config file
No conf.py, no Sphinx extensions to wire up, no build failures on a Friday. Hit save, the page is live.
Modern design out of the box
The default Read the Docs theme hasn't changed much in years. Dokly ships a modern, fast, responsive UI that looks like 2026.
llms.txt for AI agents
Your docs are auto-exposed to LLMs and agents — no extra plugins, no scripts.
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 Read the Docs
We call the wins honestly — and the places Read the Docs is still stronger.
| Feature |  Dokly | Read the Docs |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Forever | Community (ads, OSS-only) |
| Entry paid plan | $49/mo (Pro) | $50/mo (Basic) |
| Mid paid plan | $99/mo (Scale) | $150/mo (Advanced) |
| Top paid plan | Custom | $250/mo (Pro) |
| Content format | MDX | RST / Markdown (via Sphinx / MkDocs) |
| Build step | None | Sphinx build required |
| Visual editor | WYSIWYG MDX | None (edit in repo) |
| React components | Limited | |
| Default design | Modern 2026 | Sphinx classic / Furo |
| Custom domains | Unlimited on Pro | 2–15 per tier |
| Versioned docsEmail support@dokly.co for beta access | Beta (contact us) | |
| Open-source project fitRTD wins for OSS | Paid | Free Community tier |
| llms.txt | Auto-generated | Manual |
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 Read the Docs
Honest take: there's no magic importer. It's a copy-paste job today. For most sites it takes an afternoon.
Convert RST to Markdown
Tools like pandoc or rst2md convert .rst to Markdown. Run it over your docs/ tree to get a clean Markdown base.
Paste into Dokly
Create a project and paste Markdown pages into the editor. Admonitions, code blocks, and links carry over cleanly.
Customize + launch
Pick a brand color, attach a domain on Pro, publish. Your docs look like 2026 instead of 2016.
Moving a large site? Email support@dokly.co — we'll help you move it.
Pricing
Real numbers. No footnotes.
Pricing pulled from Read the Docs's own pricing page on Apr 24, 2026.
Dokly ProDokly Pro vs RTD Advanced. Against RTD Basic ($50/mo) savings are minimal; against Pro ($250/mo) savings are $2,412/yr.
DoklyFlat ratePrices verified Apr 24, 2026 from about.readthedocs.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.