Fern vs Speakeasy
Fern and Speakeasy are both API & developer docs tools. Fern is aimed at developers, while Speakeasy is aimed at developers and enterprise. Only Fern has a free plan.
Fern
SDKs and docs generated from your API spec
Speakeasy
OpenAPI-to-SDK, Terraform and MCP generator, now an AI control plane
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Starting price | Not published | Not published |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Built for | Developers | Developers, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | web, macos, windows, linux |
| Country | US · 2022 | US · 2022 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Fern if
API-first companies.
- Saves SDK engineering
- Idiomatic code
- Docs included
Look elsewhere if: Small internal APIs.
Choose Speakeasy if
API-first companies that need idiomatic multi-language SDKs and Terraform providers, and enterprises governing AI agent access to tools.
- SDKs read like hand-written code rather than generic generators
- Keeps SDKs, Terraform and MCP servers in sync from one spec
- Removes the need for a dedicated SDK engineering team
Look elsewhere if: Teams looking mainly for a hosted API docs portal or transparent self-serve pricing (Fern, ReadMe, Mintlify).
Fern vs Speakeasy pricing
Fern
- Free$010 team members, 1,000 pages, custom domain
- EnterpriseCustomSSO, SCIM, RBAC, self-hosting, SLA
Speakeasy
- EnterpriseCustomTailored quote; SDKs, Terraform, MCP gateway and control plane
Fern · Key features
- SDK generation (TS, Python, Java, Go)
- Docs generation
- API definition
- CI publishing
- Versioning
- Examples
Cons
- Enterprise pricing is custom
- Spec quality required
- Vendor dependence
Speakeasy · Key features
- Type-safe SDK generation from OpenAPI in seven languages
- Terraform provider generation from the same API spec
- CLI generation from OpenAPI, currently in alpha
- GitHub workflow that regenerates and publishes SDKs on spec changes
- Built-in pagination, retries, auth and webhook handling in SDKs
- Gram for building and hosting MCP servers from existing APIs
Cons
- No public pricing; everything is quote-based
- Product focus has shifted toward the AI control plane
- Does not replace a full developer docs portal
Fern vs Speakeasy: FAQ
Do Fern and Speakeasy have a free plan?
Fern has a free plan. Speakeasy has no free plan.