---
published: true
layout: post
title: We Are Entering The Third API Documentation Renaissance
tags:
  - Documentation
  - OpenAPI
image: >-
  https://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/algorotoscope-master/eugenics-cotton-candy.jpeg
---
We recall vividly here at API Evangelist the response to Swagger and SwaggerUI when it came out. It was ground-breaking, game-changing, revolutionary, and all the other hollowed out phrases we use to describe things in the technology sector. Mashery scrambled to release their IO Docs to compete, Mulesoft got to work on RAML, Mashape (now Kong / RapidAPI) scrambled to build their marketplace, and Apiary set the API design-first movement into motion. Swagger UI won out, but in 2015 Redoc quietly slipped onto the scene with a better looking, but less functional version of API documentation that would capture the imagination. There has been a lot of iteration, innovation, and steps forward and backwards from proprietary players looking to capture value from the space, but we haven’t seen a lot of open-source innovation until recently with the following solutions.

- [**OpenAPI Doctor**](https://github.com/pb33f/doctor) - Visual eye candy at the intersection of OpenAPI editor, documentation, and governance.
- [**Scalar**](https://github.com/scalar/scalar) - Customizable editor, documentation, and change management that is clean, simple, and extensible.
- [**Zudoku**](https://github.com/zuplo/zudoku) - Clean, simple, extensible, and interactive look at what a fully communized API documentation can be.

Of course, there are many other API documentation solutions out there that are open-source and commercial offerings, but these three have caught our attention because of their open source and solid imagination around what API documentation can be, but also come with a powerful message—-which is needed to cut through the noise. We love Zudoku because we believe strongly that API documentation should be free, and love the energy with Scalar cause it is sleek and clean, but OpenAPI Doctor shakes your eyeballs at the same time it is demanding that your OpenAPI powering your docs be properly governed (we really like that). We will keep exploring what makes these documentation solutions important, but we can confidently say that we are entering a 3rd generation renaissance with API documentation, with Swagger UI being first, Redoc being second, and the dominance of the 3rd generation remains to be seen.