Stoplight vs Fern

by Gralio Feb 28, 2025

Stoplight and Fern cater to different needs within API development. Stoplight excels in design, documentation, and a design-first approach, while Fern simplifies API integration through SDK and stub generation. Stoplight suits teams prioritizing thorough API design and documentation, whereas Fern benefits those focused on efficient code integration.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 342 reviews and 60 websites, saving 2 hours, 24 minutes of reading.

Stoplight

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Fern

About

Stoplight is a software platform that helps businesses design, build, and manage their APIs (connection points between software applications). It allows teams to plan APIs in advance, automatically generates documentation, and ensures quality and consistency. Stoplight promotes a "design-first" approach to API development, aiming to reduce errors, improve collaboration, and speed up the development process. It's suitable for organizations of all sizes that need to create and manage APIs efficiently.

Fern is a software platform designed to help development teams build and manage their application programming interfaces (APIs). It offers tools for API design, documentation generation, and testing, allowing teams to streamline their API development processes.

Summary

Main difference

Stoplight is a comprehensive API design and management platform ideal for design-first development and robust documentation. Fern focuses on generating client SDKs and server stubs for various languages, simplifying API integration for developers.

Relative strengths of Stoplight (compared to Fern)

Stronger focus on design-first API development with intuitive visual tools.
Comprehensive documentation features with automated generation and hosting.
Wide range of integrations with popular development tools and version control systems like Git.

Relative weaknesses of Stoplight (compared to Fern)

Less emphasis on client SDK and server stub generation compared to Fern.
Pricing can be relatively high, especially for larger teams and viewer licenses.
Some users report occasional performance issues with larger projects.

Who should use Stoplight VS. Fern

Stoplight is an API design, management, and documentation platform perfect for teams prioritizing a design-first approach. Users praise its intuitive interface, mocking capabilities, and Git integration. However, some find role-based access and bulk editing challenging. Its comprehensive features make it suitable for organizations of all sizes.

Fern is an API management platform designed for development teams to streamline API design, documentation, and testing. It simplifies the API development lifecycle, improves collaboration, and accelerates the development process. Fern is best suited for growing software companies seeking efficient API management solutions.

Ideal for organizations of all sizes needing efficient API management.
Strong fit for Software, IT & Telecommunications; less suitable for Transportation, Logistics, Marketing, and Advertising.

Best for fast-growing companies with expanding development teams.
Ideal for software companies focused on API development and management.

Stoplight and Fern features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

API management

Partially supported

Stoplight excels at API design and documentation, but not full API management.

Not supported

Fern helps with API design and development, but not with securing or managing APIs.
Custom connector development

Not supported

Stoplight does not appear to have a toolkit for building custom connectors.

Unknown

Fern's support for custom connector development is not found in the provided sources.
Pre-built connectors

Not supported

Stoplight does not appear to offer pre-built connectors.

Not supported

Fern does not offer pre-built application connectors.
Version control

Not supported

Stoplight offers version control for API designs, but not for knowledge base articles.

Partially supported

Fern supports versioning of API documentation through integration with Git.
Graphical Reports

Not supported

Stoplight does not support graphical reports.

Not supported

Fern does not seem to support graphical reports.
Mobile responsiveness

Not supported

Stoplight, primarily an API tool, does not directly support mobile responsiveness for knowledge base portals.

Partially supported

Fern's documentation can be customized for mobile responsiveness using JavaScript and CSS.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

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Customer Service

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Ease of Use

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Reliability and Performance

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Ease of Implementation

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Scalability

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Stoplight and Fern Pricing

Stoplight offers four main pricing plans: Basic, Startup, Pro Team, and Enterprise. The Enterprise plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote. Each plan includes a 14-day free trial and the option to be billed annually or monthly. All plans include API design, mocking, documentation, visibility and governance, consistency and quality, integrations, access and management, billing and support features. The higher-tier plans offer more features such as increased user limits, private projects, custom domains, and priority support.

Plans

See full Pricing page

No data

We couldn't find a pricing page for Fern.

Stoplight and Fern review insights

342 reviews analysed from

Users love

Intuitive and user-friendly interface for designing APIs.
Excellent API mocking capabilities for testing implementations.
Seamless integration with Git for version control and collaboration.
Comprehensive design and documentation platform.
Supports a design-first approach to software development.

No data

Users dislike

Difficult to manage role-based access; inviting guests to API projects involves too many steps.
Limited bulk editing capabilities; many tasks require manual effort.
Model examples are not displayed in the documentation and are generally ineffective.
Occasional performance issues and slow loading times, especially with larger projects.
High cost, especially viewer licenses, which are almost as expensive as maker licenses.

No data

Stoplight and Fern Ratings

G2

4.4/5

(342)

Company health

Employee growth

No data

366% increase in the last year

Web traffic

No data

136% increase in the last quarter

Financing

No data

March 2023 - $500K

How do Stoplight's role-based access controls compare to Fern's?

Stoplight users report difficulty managing role-based access and inviting users to projects. There is no information available regarding Fern's role-based access controls.

Which product better supports a design-first API development workflow?

Stoplight explicitly promotes and supports a design-first API development workflow, offering tools specifically for designing, mocking, and documenting APIs before implementation. While Fern also supports API design and documentation, its focus is less clearly articulated around the design-first approach. Therefore, Stoplight better supports a design-first API development workflow.

What are the advantages of Stoplight?

Stoplight's advantages include its intuitive interface for API design, excellent mocking capabilities, seamless Git integration, comprehensive design and documentation platform, and its support for a design-first approach, which helps reduce errors and improve collaboration. Users specifically praise its user-friendliness and robust feature set for API management.

What are the disadvantages of Stoplight?

Stoplight's disadvantages include difficulties managing role-based access and limited bulk editing capabilities, requiring more manual effort. Users also report ineffective model examples in documentation and occasional performance issues, especially with larger projects. The high cost, particularly for viewer licenses, is also a concern.

Alternatives to Stoplight and Fern

Zuplo

Zuplo is a tool that helps businesses create and manage their APIs, which are ways for different software applications to communicate with each other. It offers features like security measures, usage limits, and documentation for developers. Zuplo focuses on being easy to use for developers and boasts a fast setup process. It can be deployed on Zuplo's servers or your own.

Mintlify Doc Writer

Mintlify Doc Writer is a documentation tool designed for mid-sized companies and startups to create professional and user-friendly documentation websites. It offers features like customizable templates, collaboration tools, and analytics to track user engagement. Mintlify emphasizes ease of use and aims to streamline the documentation process for modern teams. It stands out with AI-powered features such as content suggestions and automatic translations.

Document360

Document360 is a software platform designed for businesses to create and manage internal knowledge bases and customer-facing help centers. It offers tools for writing, organizing, and publishing various types of content, including FAQs, product manuals, and company policies. Document360 helps streamline information sharing, reduce support requests, and improve team productivity through features like version control, analytics, and integrations with popular platforms. Its AI-powered search and content generation capabilities aim to simplify knowledge management and deliver faster, more accurate answers to user inquiries.

Acho

Acho is a data platform designed to help businesses build custom applications using their data. It offers tools to connect to various data sources, automate data processes, and create applications without needing extensive coding knowledge. Acho emphasizes customization and aims to replace the need for multiple, disconnected tools. It's geared towards streamlining operations and improving efficiency for growing businesses.

Copado

Copado is a software platform that helps businesses manage and automate software development on Salesforce. It offers tools for planning, building, testing, and deploying applications, with a focus on speed and reliability. Copado emphasizes automation and collaboration features, making it suitable for mid-sized and larger companies that heavily rely on Salesforce. It promises faster releases, reduced risks, and increased productivity for software development teams.

Postman

Postman is a popular platform used by developers to work with APIs (connections between software). It helps teams build, test, and manage these APIs throughout their entire lifespan. Postman prioritizes collaboration, quality, security, and efficiency for software development teams of all sizes.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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