Read the Docs
Read the Docs, Inc. is a Portland-based documentation hosting platform that builds, versions, and serves technical documentation from Git repositories for more than 80,000 open-source and enterprise software projects via a freemium SaaS model.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersPortland, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Read the Docs does
Read the Docs, Inc. is a Portland, Oregon-based documentation hosting platform that builds, versions, hosts, and indexes technical documentation directly from source repositories. Founded in 2010, the service positions itself as a continuous-documentation backend for open-source and enterprise software projects alike, supporting the Sphinx, MkDocs, Docusaurus, and Jupyter Book markup frameworks. Platform infrastructure runs on AWS and processes approximately 55 million documentation pages and 40 TB of data transfer per month across more than 80,000 open-source projects and 100,000 registered users — traffic levels sufficient to place Read the Docs among the top 1,000 global websites.
The product integrates as a native app with major source-control providers, including a dedicated GitHub App (general availability October 2025) along with GitLab and Bitbucket OAuth flows, and exposes APIs and webhooks for build, version, and project management. Search is powered by Elasticsearch, and the platform exposes Markdown content negotiation and an llms.txt endpoint to make documentation consumable by AI agents and large-language-model retrieval pipelines. Notable end users span OSS projects such as Flask, Jupyter, and the Godot Engine, alongside enterprise logos including AMD, Canonical, Anaconda, and Acquia.
Revenue is generated through a three-tier freemium model: a free Community tier monetized via on-site advertising, a Business subscription tier starting at roughly $50 per month that removes advertising and adds advanced features, and a custom-priced Enterprise tier covering private repositories, single sign-on, and advanced security controls. Stripe handles billing. The company is privately held, operates with a very small team (estimated 1–10 employees), and has not disclosed external funding.
Read the Docs firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Read the Docs
- Legal name
- Read the Docs, Inc.
- Website
- https://readthedocs.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Read the Docs, Inc. is a Portland-based documentation hosting platform that builds, versions, and serves technical documentation from Git repositories for more than 80,000 open-source and enterprise software projects via a freemium SaaS model.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Read the Docs industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Developer Documentation Platform
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (51321), Software Publishers (513210)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital Teaching Resources & Lesson Plan Libraries (EDAGAEAK)
Keywords
Where Read the Docs is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Portland
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Read the Docs business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Business Plan Subscriptions: Monthly and annual subscription plans for commercial teams requiring private documentation, team management, SSO, and additional features. Plans start at $50/month.
- Community Platform Advertising: First-party advertising hosted on Documentation Sites on Read the Docs Community. Ad images hosted on Read the Docs servers with no third-party ad code.
- Enterprise Plans: Custom enterprise pricing with specialized features, higher concurrent builders, dedicated support SLAs, and custom contracts.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free for open source projects with public documentation |
| Subscription | Monthly | Paid plans for commercial and private documentation |
| Subscription | Annual | Custom enterprise contracts |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Read the Docs product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Read the Docs is a documentation hosting and deployment platform that automates building, hosting, versioning, and search of technical documentation directly from Git repositories. It connects to GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket to build documentation on every commit, serve pull request previews, and publish public or private docs for open source projects and commercial engineering teams.
Product overview
Read the Docs is a documentation hosting and deployment platform consisting of three main tiers: Read the Docs Community (free, open-source tier), Read the Docs Business (commercial tier at $50+/month), and Read the Docs Enterprise (custom enterprise tier). The platform provides documentation infrastructure including automated builds, hosting, versioning, search, and pull request previews. Key features include GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket integrations, AI agent skills for documentation consumption, server-side Elasticsearch search, and Read the Docs Addons for analytics and version management. The platform supports Sphinx, MkDocs, Docusaurus, Jupyter Book, Markdoc, and other documentation tools via configurable build processes.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Read the Docs Community Free hosting platform for open-source documentation projects. Provides automated documentation builds, hosting, search, and versioning for public repositories, supported by advertising.
- Read the Docs Business Commercial documentation hosting platform for private documentation. Includes private repository support, team management, SSO integration with GitHub/GitLab, no advertising, and unlimited users. Plans start at $50/month.
- Read the Docs Enterprise Custom enterprise documentation hosting for large organizations. Provides tailored features, higher concurrent builders, dedicated support SLAs, and custom contracts.
- Read the Docs Public REST API RESTful API enabling developers to programmatically interact with Read the Docs for project management, build automation, version control, and documentation administration.
Quantifiable outcome
- 55 million documentation pages served monthly across 80,000+ projects
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Read the Docs
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Read the Docs technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration5 records
AI capability2 records
Feature8 records
Read the Docs partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core infrastructure and core integration.
- AWS (Amazon Web Services)core infrastructureAWS provides hosting infrastructure for Read the Docs. Hosting is graciously provided by AWS for the project.
- GitHubcore integrationDeep GitHub integration including OAuth, GitHub App with granular permissions, webhook subscriptions, and automatic build triggering on commits and pull requests. Supports both legacy OAuth and modern GitHub App.
- GitLabcore integrationGitLab OAuth integration for repository access and SSO. Clone private and public repositories from GitLab.
- Bitbucketcore integrationBitbucket OAuth integration for repository access. Clone private repositories from Bitbucket.
- Stripecore infrastructureStripe handles payment processing for Business and Enterprise subscriptions using dj-stripe integration. Supports subscription management, billing, and webhook handling.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Read the Docs competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- ReadMe: ReadMe is an API documentation and developer hub platform. It is a named competitor on RTD's comparison pages and overlaps on developer-facing documentation hosting for commercial teams.
- Mintlify: Mintlify is a modern, AI-native documentation platform targeting developer teams. It is one of RTD's named direct competitors on its comparison pages and competes for the same engineering organization customer base.
- GitBook: GitBook is a documentation and knowledge-sharing platform with Git-based workflows. It is explicitly listed as a comparison target on RTD's website and serves overlapping commercial documentation use cases.
- GitHub Pages: GitHub Pages is a static site hosting service from GitHub. It is named as a direct comparison target on RTD's website and serves the same open source documentation hosting use case.
Emerging players
- Docusaurus: Docusaurus is an open-source documentation site generator by Meta. RTD natively hosts Docusaurus projects, creating an ecosystem relationship where Docusaurus adoption funnels traffic to RTD.
- Sphinx: Sphinx is the dominant Python documentation generator. RTD's native Sphinx integration is its heritage strength, and Sphinx project hosting drives significant RTD usage among Python communities.
Broad incumbents
- Confluence: Confluence is Atlassian's enterprise wiki and documentation platform. It is a broader incumbent with overlapping documentation use cases for internal and external knowledge management, though not docs-as-code focused.
- Notion: Notion is a broad productivity and documentation workspace. It competes for documentation use cases at the team/company level, particularly for non-engineering audiences overlapping with RTD's commercial tier.
Others
- Netlify: Netlify is a static site hosting and deployment platform. It is named as a comparison target on RTD's website and serves adjacent use cases for documentation deployment, though not as a documentation-specialized platform.
- Cloudflare Pages: Cloudflare Pages is a static site hosting service from Cloudflare. It is a named comparison target on RTD's site and competes for open source documentation hosting as a low-cost alternative.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Read the Docs social profiles
Digital presenceRead the Docs financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Read the Docs leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Read the Docs funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Read the Docs M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Read the Docs
What does Read the Docs do?
Read the Docs is a documentation hosting and deployment platform that automates building, hosting, versioning, and search of technical documentation directly from Git repositories. It connects to GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket to build documentation on every commit, serve pull request previews, and publish public or private docs for open source projects and commercial engineering teams.
Is Read the Docs a public or private company?
Read the Docs is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Read the Docs founded?
Read the Docs was founded in 2010. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Read the Docs based?
Read the Docs is headquartered in Portland, United States, in the North America region.
How does Read the Docs make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Business Plan Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are community Platform Advertising and enterprise Plans.
Who are Read the Docs's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are ReadMe, Mintlify, GitBook and GitHub Pages. Emerging players are Docusaurus and Sphinx. Broad incumbents are Confluence and Notion. Others are Netlify and Cloudflare Pages.
Does Read the Docs have an API?
Yes. Read the Docs offers a public REST API for developers to programmatically interact with the platform. The API allows users to automate documentation management, build triggers, version control, and project administration. No additional details on authentication methods, rate limits, or versioning are specified in the available documentation. Developer documentation is at docs.readthedocs.io/page/api/index.html.
What industry is Read the Docs in?
Read the Docs's product category is Developer Documentation Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAGAEAK, Digital Teaching Resources & Lesson Plan Libraries. Its NAICS code is 51321 and its SIC code is 7372.