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Read the Docs

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Empower your team with versioned documentation, seamless previews, and powerful authentication.

From $5/mo, billed monthly (free plan available) Visit Website
Reviews on G2
2 reviews tracked

The Bottom Line

Price
From $5/mo, billed monthly (free plan available). Compare plans

Key facts

  • Automates documentation deployment and versioning from Git repositories.
  • Provides deploy previews for pull requests and integrated search.
  • Offers free hosting for open-source projects and paid plans for businesses with advanced features.

Pros

  • Seamless integration with Git workflows for "Docs as Code"
  • Free hosting and features for open-source and community projects
  • Automated build and deployment process on every commit
  • Supports multiple documentation tools and formats
  • Enhances collaboration with pull request previews

Cons

  • Free community plan includes ads
  • Advanced features like private repos and SSO are exclusive to paid plans
  • Requires some YAML configuration for project setup

What is Read the Docs?

Read the Docs is a comprehensive platform for deploying and managing documentation, designed to integrate seamlessly with Git workflows. It enables teams to adopt a "Docs as Code" approach, allowing developers and writers to create and maintain documentation using familiar tools like Git and text editors. The platform supports popular documentation tools such as Sphinx, MkDocs, and Jupyter Book. It caters to both open-source projects and businesses, offering features like automatic deploy previews for pull requests, versioned documentation to match product release cycles, and integrated search capabilities. For businesses, it provides advanced features such as private repository support, Single Sign-On (SSO), team management, and detailed analytics. The platform aims to streamline the documentation process, ensuring accuracy, collaboration, and efficient delivery of technical content. Read the Docs is ideal for software development teams, technical writers, and open-source projects that need a robust, scalable, and automated solution for hosting and publishing their documentation. It simplifies the publishing pipeline, allowing users to focus on content creation while the platform handles building, hosting, and versioning.

Available on: Web

Ratings Across the Web

5 (2 reviews)

Read the Docs holds an aggregate rating of 5 out of 5 from 2 reviews across G2, last checked March 19, 2026.

Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more

Key Features

  • Automatic deploy previews for pull requests
  • Supports Sphinx, MkDocs, Jupyter Book, and other documentation tools
  • Integrated search across all documentation
  • Versioned documentation from any branch or tag
  • Private repository support (paid plans)
  • Single Sign-On (SSO) with GitHub, GitLab, and Google (paid plans)
  • Team management and permissions
  • Custom domains

Pricing Plans

Free Trial

Pricing checked Oct 21, 2026. Source: readthedocs.org/pricing, read Oct 21, 2026

Read the Docs plans and prices, checked October 2026
Plan Price Details
Community

Always free

  • 2 concurrent builds
  • Host public documentation
  • Clone public repositories
+2 more
  • 2 custom domains
  • Ad supported
Gold membership (individuals)

$5 / month

  • Ad free projects
  • Support Read the Docs
  • Keep our Community site sustainable
Gold membership (companies)

$50 / month

  • Ad free projects
  • Support Read the Docs
  • Keep our Community site sustainable
Basic

$50 / month

  • API access
  • Team management
  • Email support (Best effort)
+30 more
  • Ad free
  • Public repositories
  • Pull request preview
  • Unlimited projects
  • Private repositories
  • 2 concurrent builds
  • Custom theming
  • Automatic building
  • Notifications
  • Environment variables
  • Automation rules
  • Documentation versioning
  • Documentation localization
  • Subprojects
  • Integrated search
  • Offline formats
  • Sitemap generation
  • Customizable error pages
  • Status badges
  • CDN hosting
  • Authentication auditing (30 days)
  • 100 redirects
  • Documentation authentication
  • Single sign-on (GitHub and GitLab)
  • Documentation sharing
  • 2 custom domains
  • Pageview analytics (30 days)
  • Search analytics (30 days)
  • Content embedding
  • URL customization
Advanced

$150 / month

  • Includes all core features
  • 2 business day response support
  • Single sign-on (SSO) With GitHub and GitLab
+31 more
  • 4 concurrent builds
  • 5 custom domains
  • Search and pageview analytics (30 day retention)
  • API access
  • Team management
  • Email support (2 business days)
  • Ad free
  • Public repositories
  • Pull request preview
  • Unlimited projects
  • Private repositories
  • Custom theming
  • Automatic building
  • Notifications
  • Environment variables
  • Automation rules
  • Documentation versioning
  • Documentation localization
  • Subprojects
  • Integrated search
  • Offline formats
  • Sitemap generation
  • Customizable error pages
  • Status badges
  • CDN hosting
  • Authentication auditing (30 days)
  • 250 redirects
  • Documentation authentication
  • Documentation sharing
  • Content embedding
  • URL customization
Pro

$250 / month

  • Includes all Advanced plan features
  • 6 concurrent builds
  • 15 custom domains
+31 more
  • 1 business day response support
  • Search and pageview analytics (90 day retention)
  • Authentication auditing (90 day retention)
  • Single sign-on (SSO) With Google
  • API access
  • Team management
  • Email support (1 business day)
  • Ad free
  • Public repositories
  • Pull request preview
  • Unlimited projects
  • Private repositories
  • Custom theming
  • Automatic building
  • Notifications
  • Environment variables
  • Automation rules
  • Documentation versioning
  • Documentation localization
  • Subprojects
  • Integrated search
  • Offline formats
  • Sitemap generation
  • Customizable error pages
  • Status badges
  • CDN hosting
  • 500 redirects
  • Documentation authentication
  • Documentation sharing
  • Content embedding
  • URL customization
Enterprise

Contact us

  • Custom builders
  • Support SLA
  • SAML SSO
+3 more
  • Custom build images
  • Advanced audit tracking
  • Custom integrations

Is Read the Docs worth the price?

Good value

Read the Docs offers a very generous free tier for public documentation, making it highly accessible.

The paid tiers, starting at $50/month for Basic, offer a comprehensive set of features for teams. While the Gold memberships are more about supporting the platform, the Basic, Advanced, and Pro tiers provide good value for professional teams needing private repositories and advanced features.

Full Read the Docs pricing: every plan, hidden costs and alternatives

How Read the Docs's pricing compares

Read the Docs starts at $5/mo, billed monthly. Its direct competitors are priced on a different basis (per user, or in another currency), so each entry price below is shown with its own unit and currency and is not ranked against the others.

Read the Docs
$5/mo, billed monthly
$5.78/user/mo, billed yearly
$65/mo flat, whole organisation, billed yearly

Entry paid plan, monthly price (billing term shown per row), in each tool's own currency. Pricing checked Oct 21, 2026.

Email me when Read the Docs changes its price

One email per change, found on the vendor's own pricing page. Unsubscribe any time.

Read the Docs by the numbers

Toolradar data: Read the Docs's entry paid plan ($5/mo, billed monthly) ranks #4 of 45 (joint) for price among the Documentation tools with a verified entry price and no stated unit, where the median is $19.99/mo. As of Nov 2026.

Read the Docs compared with 178 Documentation tools on Toolradar, as of Nov 2026
Metric Read the Docs Peer median Position (1 is best)
Entry paid plan $5/mo, billed monthly $19.99/mo #4 of 45 (joint) tools with no stated price unit, verified price
Free plan Yes 74% have one n/a
Listed as an alternative to 2 tools 2 #77 of 178 (joint)

Listed as an alternative to: #75 on 2026-10-16 to #77 on 2026-11-02 (rank among 178 tools, 1 is best).

Each position is counted among the tools that have data for that row, as noted under it. A lower entry price ranks higher; prices are read on vendor pages and compared only with tools priced on the same basis. All Documentation data · How we compute this. Advertising and placement fees are not inputs to any position.

Cite this: Toolradar, “Read the Docs by the numbers”, Nov 2026.

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Read the Docs FAQ

What specific documentation tools are natively integrated with Read the Docs?

Read the Docs offers integrated support for Sphinx, MkDocs, and Jupyter Book. Its flexible architecture also allows it to work with any other documentation tool.

How does Read the Docs facilitate collaboration and review of documentation changes?

It provides automatic deploy previews for every pull request, allowing teams to review documentation changes before they are merged. This ensures that everyone can see what's being shipped and collaborate effectively.

Can I host documentation for private repositories, and what are the requirements for doing so?

Yes, private repository support is a feature of paid plans. You can clone private repositories by connecting your GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket account, or by using an SSH key for other Git providers.

What are the differences in Single Sign-On (SSO) options across the various paid plans?

The Advanced plan supports SSO with GitHub and GitLab. The Pro plan extends this to include Google for SSO. Enterprise plans can be customized for specific SSO requirements, including SAML.

How does Read the Docs handle versioning of documentation to align with product release cycles?

Read the Docs allows you to match your product release cycle by supporting multiple versions of your documentation. It can automatically build these versions directly from any branch or tag in your Git repository.

What are the retention periods for search and pageview analytics on the different business plans?

The Advanced plan retains search and pageview analytics for 30 days. The Pro plan extends this retention period to 90 days for both search and pageview analytics.

How does Read the Docs pricing compare with other Documentation tools?

Read the Docs's entry paid plan ($5/mo, billed monthly) ranks #4 of 45 (joint) for price among the Documentation tools with a verified entry price and no stated unit, where the median is $19.99/mo. Prices are read on each vendor's own pricing page and compared only with tools priced on the same basis. Source: Toolradar, Nov 2026.

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