GitBook vs Mintlify: The 2025 Comparison

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Choosing the right documentation tool can be tricky. You want something powerful enough for technical teams but easy enough so it doesn't become another problem on your plate.

GitBook and Mintlify both offer modern designs and advanced features—but they're not exactly budget-friendly or straightforward to use. So, how do you know which one will truly meet your needs? 🤔

In this guide, we'll walk you through an in-depth comparison of GitBook and Mintlify, so you can confidently pick the best tool for your team.

Quick overview:

• GitBook is designed for highly technical teams who value deep GitHub integration, AI capabilities, and advanced security. It's feature-packed and comes with a steep learning curve.
• Mintlify targets developers who want complete control over documentation design and structure. However, you'll need significant developer resources to get it up and running.
• Both can quickly become very pricey and overly complex, especially for smaller teams and startups.

If you're after a modern, more affordable alternative, check out Featurebase (👋 that's us). It's a no-code alternative to GitBook and Mintlify—but we’ll stay unbiased in this comparison, promise.

Overview: GitBook vs Mintlify

GitBook

GitBook has carved out a niche among technical teams needing detailed documentation, especially around SDKs and API references. Founded in 2014, it offers powerful integrations (particularly with GitHub) and AI-driven documentation features that technical teams love.

• Ideal for large teams deeply integrated with GitHub.
• Extensive AI features for writing, search, and translations.
• Popular among enterprises and mature tech startups.

Mintlify

Mintlify entered the scene more recently and has quickly become popular among developers looking to build custom documentation solutions. It’s flexible, modern-looking, and designed specifically for technical teams.

• Best suited for developers wanting maximum control and customization.
• Requires custom code and technical resources for initial setup.
• Strong AI capabilities similar to GitBook.

Features: GitBook vs Mintlify

Both knowledge base tools are quite feature-packed, so let's take a quick look at what they offer side-by-side.

GitBook’s features:

GitBook offers a comprehensive feature set that makes technical documentation easier and more collaborative:

• AI-powered search and content tools – Intelligent search, automatic translations, and content suggestions to simplify writing and maintaining documentation.
• Deep GitHub integration – Keep your documentation in perfect sync with your GitHub repositories, enabling seamless collaboration.
• Customization and branding – Fully customizable domain, colors, themes, and logo, allowing your docs to match your brand.
• Advanced analytics and insights – Understand how your documentation performs, with detailed user interaction data.
• Security and permissions – Advanced permission systems, Single Sign-On (SSO) support, and secure hosting.

Overall, GitBook is feature-rich and powerful, particularly for enterprise teams. But with power comes complexity—the platform can feel overwhelming for new users or non-developers.

Mintlify’s features:

Mintlify differentiates itself with a high level of customization and flexibility for technical teams. Its main features include:

• Developer-focused customization: Full control with custom CSS and JavaScript, letting developers build precisely the documentation site they envision.
• AI-driven search and suggestions: Smart search capabilities and automatic content recommendations powered by AI.
• Template library for technical docs: Ready-to-use templates for API and SDK documentation, enabling faster setup.
• Sleek, modern user interface: Intuitive and attractive UI designed specifically for technical users and developers.
• Custom domain and branding: Customizable domain names and themes to align documentation with your product’s identity.

Mintlify stands out as highly flexible—but there’s a catch. It requires significant coding and developer resources upfront, which can be an issue if your team wants to quickly roll out documentation without diverting dev resources.

Bottom line:

Choose GitBook if AI integrations and Git synchronization are critical.

Choose Mintlify if you want total design freedom but don’t mind a hefty upfront setup effort.

Pricing comparison: GitBook vs Mintlify

Pricing matters, especially if you’re a startup or a smaller company looking to scale efficiently.

GitBook pricing

GitBook's pricing is divided into two buckets—Site Plans and User Plans. You need both if you want to collaborate with your team on the help center.

Site plans (for hosting your docs):

• Free: Basic public site, single user, unlimited traffic
• Premium: $79/site/month—AI features, branding, analytics
• Ultimate: $299/site/month—Advanced analytics, authentication features, version control

User plans (for team collaboration):

• Free: Only you, can't invite the team
• Plus: $10/user/month—Basic collaboration
• Pro: $15/user/month—Advanced AI features, permissions, and SSO
• Enterprise: custom pricing—Migrating, support training, and security reviews

Example: A 5-person team needing a Premium site and Pro features quickly reaches around $150+/month.

Mintlify pricing

Mintlify offers simpler, but still premium pricing, clearly targeting teams with higher documentation needs:

• Hobby (Free): A single editor, custom domain, Git sync, web editor, in-app search, API playground, and basic customization with CSS & JS
• Pro ($180/month): 5 editors, advanced analytics, AI-powered chat responses and writing assistant, article feedback collection
• Growth ($650/month): Up to 20 editors, deployment previews, password protection, grammar and styling checks, custom homepage, removal of Mintlify branding, and increased AI chat credits
• Enterprise (Custom Pricing): Migration, end-user authentication, SSO login, multiple sites management, and security reviews

Mintlify’s plans are clearly positioned for teams that can justify higher costs in exchange for extensive customizability, advanced analytics, and AI-driven writing tools. For smaller teams or startups sensitive to cost, this pricing structure may quickly exceed budgets.

Pricing takeaway: Both tools require significant monthly investments, especially as your team grows. Expect to spend $150–$300/month for a mid-sized technical team.

Who should choose GitBook or Mintlify?

• Choose GitBook if: You're a technical team deeply integrated with GitHub, requiring advanced analytics, security, and AI content tools. Just be ready for the learning curve and higher ongoing costs.
• Choose Mintlify if: Your team prioritizes developer-driven customization and doesn't mind investing upfront developer time. If custom code setup isn’t an issue, Mintlify offers great design flexibility.

If neither option sounds ideal, don’t worry—we have a simpler suggestion coming up next.

The downsides: GitBook vs Mintlify

GitBook’s main drawbacks:

• Pricing can quickly balloon with user count and features.
• Steep learning curve, making onboarding harder for new or less technical team members.
• Support is not the best according to customer reviews on the internet.

Mintlify’s main drawbacks:

• Setup and customization require extensive coding and developer resources.
• Lacks mature integrations and some advanced features you’d expect at its premium price point.
• Difficult for non-developer teams to adopt quickly.

So, which one is better?

Both GitBook and Mintlify are strong, capable tools for technical teams. GitBook wins for those needing powerful AI tools and strong GitHub integration, while Mintlify stands out for ultimate customization.

However, both carry drawbacks like very high and complex pricing, plus setup processes that may burden smaller teams or startups. If neither feels quite right, we've got just what you need! 👇

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It’s loved by thousands of product, marketing, and support teams from companies like Lovabale, Polymarket, and Instantly.

Plus, at just $49 per month, it costs a fraction of GitBook, Mintlify, and most other documentation platforms.

Some of the many Featurebase features include:

• Public & internal knowledge base
• Beautiful design with light & dark modes
• Embeddable in-app widget to provide self-serve support from your product
• AI search summaries
• Custom branding and domain
• Intuitive Notion-style editor
• Localization for 40+ languages
• Article reactions & feedback
• Real-time analytics
• SEO optimized out of the box
• Plus, feedback voting community, product roadmaps, changelogs, and satisfaction surveys—all in one place

Long story short, Featurebase gives you all the powerful documentation capabilities of GitBook and Mintlify—but without the steep costs or setup complexity.

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