Bump.sh vs ReadMe

Bump.sh is a hosted API documentation platform built by a small, fully remote French team led by CEO Sébastien Charrier. It takes OpenAPI and AsyncAPI definitions from your repository, turns them into fast reference docs, and diffs every new version so breaking changes are flagged and a changelog is generated automatically. It is docs-as-code for teams that treat the API contract as the source of truth.

Every commit or pull request can deploy or preview docs through the CLI or GitHub Action, and API hubs group many APIs into one portal with a custom domain. Pro adds branch management, an API Explorer, release rollback and the automatic changelog. There is no free plan: Basic costs $50 per month for 10 API docs, Pro $120 per month for 30 docs with a 14-day trial, and Custom adds SSO, embed mode and a 99.99% SLA. Open source projects can request free Pro access.

Bump.sh suits platform teams publishing many internal or public APIs, especially event-driven ones, since AsyncAPI support is first class. It is weaker for long guides and marketing-style portals. ReadMe and Mintlify are stronger for narrative docs, Redocly offers similar OpenAPI tooling with more linting and self-hosting, and Stoplight focuses on design-first editing.

The biggest recent change is its new managed MCP platform: Bump.sh generates and hosts MCP servers from API definitions and Arazzo workflow files, with auth and observability, so AI agents can call your API safely. Note that Basic includes only five MCP tools.

ReadMe is a developer hub platform founded in 2014 in San Francisco and used by many API-first companies to publish their documentation. It combines guides, an interactive API reference, changelogs, recipes and a discussion forum in one hosted site that product and developer relations teams can edit without a docs engineering team.

The API reference is generated from OpenAPI or Swagger definitions and includes a try-it console that makes real calls, with code samples in many languages. Logged-in developers see their own API keys pre-filled, which shortens time to first call. ReadMe's distinctive feature is API metrics: with a lightweight SDK or integration, it shows which customers call which endpoints, how often and with which errors, and links those logs to the docs and support. Owlbot, the AI assistant, answers developer questions from the documentation. Plans run from the free Starter tier to Pro at $250 a month billed annually, which adds unlimited versions and more admins, and Enterprise adds multi-project governance and SSO.

ReadMe fits companies whose API is a core product and who want docs, onboarding and usage analytics in one place. Costs climb quickly from Pro to Enterprise, and teams that want docs-as-code in git may prefer Mintlify, which offers a modern design and strong git workflows. Redocly and Stoplight are strong for API design and governance, while Docusaurus and Scalar are free options for smaller projects.