# Docszero vs Mintlify: free plans, and the cliff after them Mintlify’s free plan is the most generous of the big docs platforms — five editors and a custom domain. The catch is what comes next: the first paid plan is $450 a month. Docszero Pro is $19.99. _Source: https://www.docszero.com/compare/mintlify_ _Comparison · Docszero vs Mintlify_ _Published 7 September 2026, prices checked 7 September 2026_ > **In short:** Mintlify is the better choice if your docs live in a Git repository as MDX and your writers are engineers. Docszero is the better choice if the docs are Markdown, Word or PDF files that need to be a website today, and if the jump from free to $450 a month is not one you can make. ## Mintlify plans Read from https://mintlify.com/pricing on 7 September 2026. - **Starter** — $0 / month. Five editor seats, custom domain, no AI credits. - **Pro** — $450 / month. Billed monthly. 10,000 AI credits. - **Enterprise** — Custom. SSO, SCIM, security review. ## The short answer Mintlify’s free plan is good, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. [Starter is $0 a month](https://mintlify.com/pricing) with five editor seats and a custom domain — more than GitBook or ReadMe give away, and more than Docszero gives away, since a custom domain on Docszero starts on Pro. Two things decide between them anyway. The first is how you write: Mintlify is a code-first tool, where docs are MDX in a repository configured by a `docs.json` and deployed on push. The second is what happens when the free plan stops being enough — Mintlify’s next step is **$450 a month**, and Docszero’s is $19.99. > If you are an engineering team that already reviews docs in pull requests, Mintlify’s free tier is probably the best free documentation plan on the market, and this page will not talk you out of it. ## What each free plan actually gives you | | Mintlify Starter | Docszero Free | | --- | --- | --- | | Price | $0 / month, no card | $0 forever, no card | | Editor seats | 5 | 1 | | Custom domain | Included | No — Pro and above | | How you write | MDX in a Git repository | Markdown in the browser, or upload | | Setup | A docs.json, a repo and the CLI | Drag a folder in | | Word or PDF import | No | Yes, converted to pages | | Full-text search | Yes | Yes | | API playground | Yes | No | | Export the whole site | Your MDX is already in your repo | Yes, HTML or source | | Reader analytics | Not on the free plan | Totals for the last 2 days | Read that table honestly and Mintlify’s free plan beats ours on seats and on domains. Ours beats theirs on getting started: there is no repository to create, no `docs.json` to write and no CLI to install, and a Word document from legal is a valid input rather than a conversion job. ## The cliff after free Free plans matter most in what they lead to. Mintlify’s published ladder goes from $0 straight to $450 a month; there is no small paid plan between them. | | Mintlify | Docszero | | --- | --- | --- | | Free plan | $0 — 5 editors, custom domain | $0 — 1 site, subdomain, export | | Next step up | $450 / month | $19.99 / month, or $199.90 a year | | What the step buys | AI credits, analytics, integrations, API | 10 sites, custom domains, themes, private docs | | Step above that | Enterprise, quoted | Agency, $49 / month, 5 seats | | A year of the first paid plan | $5,400 | $199.90 | That is a twenty-seven times difference on the first paid plan, and it is the whole argument. If the free tier covers you, Mintlify is excellent and free. If you outgrow it — you want reader analytics, or a private site, or a second product — the next rung is $5,400 a year. ## Code-first or browser-first This is the real fork in the road, and price has nothing to do with it. ### Mintlify is code-first Docs are MDX files in your repository. Configuration is a `docs.json` you edit by hand. You preview locally with the CLI and publish by pushing. Reviews happen in pull requests, docs version with the code, and an engineer can fix a typo without leaving the editor they already have open. ### Docszero is browser-first Docs are Markdown you upload or write in a browser editor with the rendered page beside it. There is no config file, because we write it. Saves land on a private draft and the published site only changes when you press Publish. Every save is a version you can restore, and every build is a version you can roll back to. Neither is the correct answer. If your writers are engineers who live in a repo, code-first is less friction, not more. If your writers are a founder, a support lead and someone in legal, a repository is a wall. ## Where Mintlify is the better choice - Your docs belong in the same repository as the code, reviewed in the same pull requests. - You want a custom domain without paying anything at all. - You have five people writing and want them all on the free plan. - You publish an OpenAPI reference and want a playground generated from it. - You want MDX: React components inside your pages. ## Where Docszero is the better choice - The docs are not in a repository and you would rather they never had to be. - Some of them are a Word document or a PDF that needs to become pages. - You need what comes after the free plan to cost tens of dollars, not hundreds. - You run docs for several products and want them all under one bill. - You want reader numbers without a third-party script or a cookie banner. ### Bringing Mintlify docs over Your pages are already Markdown in a repository, which is the easiest possible starting point: zip the docs folder and upload it. MDX components are the one thing that will not survive, because Docszero builds plain Markdown — pages using them need those blocks written out. Everything else, images and links included, comes across. ## Questions ### Is there a free Mintlify alternative? Yes. Docszero’s free plan publishes one site on a docszero.com subdomain with search, a browser editor and static export, with no credit card. Mintlify also has a free plan, and on seats and custom domains it is more generous than ours. The difference shows up above free: Mintlify’s next plan is $450 a month, Docszero’s is $19.99. ### Does Mintlify have a free plan? Yes. Mintlify lists a Starter plan at $0 a month with five editor seats, a custom domain, the web editor, authentication and an API playground, and states that no credit card is required. It does not include AI credits, platform analytics, webhooks or the developer API. Read from mintlify.com/pricing on 7 September 2026. ### How much does Mintlify cost after the free plan? Mintlify’s published Pro plan is $450 a month billed monthly, including 10,000 AI credits with overages at $0.01 per credit. Above that, Enterprise pricing is quoted on request. There is no intermediate paid tier listed between Starter and Pro. ### Do I need a Git repository to use Docszero? No. You can upload a zip of Markdown, a single .md file, a Word document or a PDF, or write in the browser editor. There is no repository, no build command and no config file to maintain — Docszero writes the config and builds the site. ### Will my MDX work on Docszero? Plain Markdown works, including images, links and mermaid diagrams. MDX-specific React components do not, because Docszero builds standard Markdown with Zensical; pages that rely on custom components need those sections written as Markdown instead. --- Published by Docszero (https://www.docszero.com) — docs, minus the setup. Upload Markdown, a Word document or a PDF and get a searchable documentation site. Free for one site; export the source on every plan.