Best Documentation Frameworks in 2026: Docusaurus vs VitePress vs Starlight

TL;DR

Docusaurus for React-heavy docs with plugins; VitePress for fast Vue-based docs; Starlight for Astro-powered modern docs. Docusaurus (~3M weekly downloads) is Meta's battle-tested framework — used by React, Jest, Prettier, and thousands of open-source projects. VitePress (~2M) is the next-gen Vue Docs framework, used by Vue 3, Vite, and Vitest. Starlight (~200K) is Astro's new doc framework — fastest builds, Islands architecture, built-in search.

Key Takeaways

• Docusaurus: ~3M weekly downloads — React, plugins, versioning, i18n, widely trusted
• VitePress: ~2M downloads — Vue 3, instant search, fast HMR, markdown-centered
• Starlight: ~200K downloads — Astro-powered, fastest builds, built-in search + i18n
• Nextra — Next.js-based docs, used by SWR, shadcn, Vercel docs
• All three — support MDX, syntax highlighting, dark mode, versioning

---

Docusaurus (React)

// docusaurus.config.ts — full-featured configuration
import type { Config } from '@docusaurus/types';
import type * as Preset from '@docusaurus/preset-classic';

const config: Config = {
  title: 'PkgPulse Docs',
  tagline: 'npm package health scores',
  url: 'https://docs.pkgpulse.com',
  baseUrl: '/',
  favicon: 'img/favicon.ico',

  presets: [
    ['classic', {
      docs: {
        sidebarPath: './sidebars.ts',
        editUrl: 'https://github.com/pkgpulse/docs/edit/main/',
        // Versioning — for libraries that need docs for multiple versions
        lastVersion: 'current',
        versions: {
          current: { label: '2.0 (Latest)', path: '/' },
          '1.0': { label: '1.0', path: '1.0' },
        },
      },
      blog: {
        showReadingTime: true,
        feedOptions: { type: 'all' },
      },
      theme: {
        customCss: './src/css/custom.css',
      },
    } satisfies Preset.Options],
  ],

  plugins: [
    ['@docusaurus/plugin-ideal-image', {}],
    [require.resolve('@easyops-cn/docusaurus-search-local'), {
      hashed: true,
      docsRouteBasePath: '/docs',
    }],
  ],

  themeConfig: {
    navbar: {
      title: 'PkgPulse',
      items: [
        { type: 'doc', docId: 'intro', label: 'Docs' },
        { to: '/blog', label: 'Blog' },
        { type: 'docsVersionDropdown' },
      ],
    },
    prism: {
      theme: require('prism-react-renderer').themes.github,
      darkTheme: require('prism-react-renderer').themes.dracula,
      additionalLanguages: ['bash', 'diff', 'json'],
    },
    algolia: {
      appId: 'YOUR_APP_ID',
      apiKey: 'YOUR_SEARCH_KEY',
      indexName: 'pkgpulse',
    },
  } satisfies Preset.ThemeConfig,
};

export default config;

---
# docs/getting-started.mdx — MDX in Docusaurus
sidebar_position: 1
---
import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs';
import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem';

# Getting Started

<Tabs>
  <TabItem value="npm" label="npm">
    ```bash
    npm install pkgpulse-sdk
    ```
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="pnpm" label="pnpm" default>
    ```bash
    pnpm add pkgpulse-sdk
    ```
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

---

VitePress

// .vitepress/config.ts — Vue-based doc site
import { defineConfig } from 'vitepress';

export default defineConfig({
  title: 'PkgPulse Docs',
  description: 'npm package health scores documentation',
  themeConfig: {
    nav: [
      { text: 'Guide', link: '/guide/' },
      { text: 'API', link: '/api/' },
      { text: 'Changelog', link: '/changelog' },
    ],
    sidebar: {
      '/guide/': [
        { text: 'Introduction', link: '/guide/' },
        { text: 'Getting Started', link: '/guide/getting-started' },
        {
          text: 'Core Concepts',
          items: [
            { text: 'Health Scores', link: '/guide/health-scores' },
            { text: 'Comparisons', link: '/guide/comparisons' },
          ],
        },
      ],
    },
    search: {
      provider: 'local',  // Free, built-in search
    },
    socialLinks: [
      { icon: 'github', link: 'https://github.com/pkgpulse/pkgpulse' },
    ],
    editLink: {
      pattern: 'https://github.com/pkgpulse/docs/edit/main/docs/:path',
    },
  },
  // VitePress builds fast — uses Vite under the hood
  vite: {
    build: { target: 'esnext' },
  },
});

# docs/guide/index.md
# Introduction

VitePress pages are just Markdown. Use frontmatter for metadata:

---
title: Custom Page Title
outline: deep  # Shows all headings in sidebar
---

## Heading with anchor

::: tip
This is a tip box.
:::

::: warning
This is a warning.
:::

::: details Click to expand
Hidden content here.
:::

---

Starlight (Astro)

// astro.config.mjs — Starlight setup
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config';
import starlight from '@astrojs/starlight';

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [
    starlight({
      title: 'PkgPulse Docs',
      description: 'npm health scores for package discovery',
      social: {
        github: 'https://github.com/pkgpulse/pkgpulse',
      },
      sidebar: [
        {
          label: 'Start Here',
          items: [
            { label: 'Introduction', link: '/guides/intro/' },
            { label: 'Quick Start', link: '/guides/quickstart/' },
          ],
        },
        {
          label: 'Reference',
          autogenerate: { directory: 'reference' },
        },
      ],
      // Built-in search (PageFind)
      // Built-in i18n
      defaultLocale: 'root',
      locales: {
        root: { label: 'English', lang: 'en' },
        fr: { label: 'Français', lang: 'fr' },
        ja: { label: '日本語', lang: 'ja' },
      },
      // Built-in dark mode
    }),
  ],
});

---

Comparison Table

Framework	Base	Bundle Size	Build Speed	Search	i18n
Docusaurus	React	Medium	Medium	Algolia/Local	✅ Built-in
VitePress	Vue	Small	Fast	Local built-in	✅ Built-in
Starlight	Astro	Smallest	Fastest	PageFind built-in	✅ Built-in
Nextra	Next.js	Medium	Medium	Algolia	✅

---

When to Choose

Scenario	Pick
Large project with versioning needs	Docusaurus
React ecosystem, lots of plugins	Docusaurus
Vue/Vite project	VitePress
Want fastest builds, Astro	Starlight
Zero JS, pure content docs	Starlight
Next.js-hosted docs	Nextra
Need custom React components in docs	Docusaurus or Nextra

---

Compare documentation framework package health on PkgPulse.