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APIs · head to head

Convoy vs Doxygen

Convoy logo

Convoy

APIs

Open source webhooks gateway you self-host, handling both sending and receiving

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Doxygen logo

Doxygen

Documentation

Free, open source documentation generator that builds reference docs from source code comments

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Convoy the default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.; Doxygen there is no vendor or paid support contract; when something breaks in a large or unusual codebase, the only recourse is community mailing lists, forums or reading the source
  • They diverge on capability: Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Doxygen covers Code comment parsing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Convoy and Doxygen actually diverge.

Attributes where Convoy and Doxygen differ
AttributeConvoyDoxygen
Pricing modelPer month, flat rate regardless of volumeOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, CloudLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryAPIsDocumentation

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Convoy

  • Inbound and outbound
  • Broker-driven ingestion
  • Payload transformation
  • Portal links
  • Circuit breaking
  • Retry policies
  • OpenTelemetry export
  • Role-based access control

Only in Doxygen

  • Code comment parsing
  • Multi-format output
  • Call and inheritance graphs
  • Markdown support
  • CI-friendly build

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Convoy

  • A fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party SaaS for compliance reasonsnot Doxygen
  • A high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licencenot Doxygen
  • A team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gatewaynot Doxygen
  • An engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing Kafka or SQS topicnot Doxygen

Doxygen

  • An engineering team generating API reference documentation directly from source code comments as part of a CI buildnot Convoy
  • A library or SDK maintainer who wants reference docs that cannot drift out of sync with the code because they are generated from itnot Convoy
  • An internal platform team documenting a large C++ or Java codebase where structure like class hierarchies and call graphs matters more than prosenot Convoy
  • A project with no documentation budget that still needs professional-looking reference output without any licence costnot Convoy

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Convoy

  • The default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.
  • Frain Technologies is a small startup, and putting customer-facing delivery infrastructure on it means accepting real vendor continuity risk on a component that is hard to swap out quickly.
  • The premium tier at a flat 999 US dollars a month is poor value below substantial volume, while the community edition omits the portal, transformations and RBAC that most production deployments end up wanting.
  • The hosted cloud trial is capped at one project and 100 events a day, which is too small to properly evaluate the service before committing.
  • Documentation and the third-party ecosystem are thinner than the established webhook services, so unusual configurations often mean reading the Go source.

Doxygen

  • There is no vendor or paid support contract; when something breaks in a large or unusual codebase, the only recourse is community mailing lists, forums or reading the source
  • Default HTML output looks dated and requires a third-party theme such as Doxygen Awesome to look acceptable to a modern audience, which is extra setup work not included
  • It only generates reference documentation from code comments; it is not a narrative documentation tool, help centre or CCMS, so most teams need a separate tool for guides and tutorials
  • Comment syntax and configuration have a real learning curve, and inconsistent comment discipline across a team produces inconsistent or sparse output regardless of the tool
  • Multi-language support varies in depth; parsing quality for languages outside its C-family core (C++, C, C#, Objective-C) is generally weaker than for its primary targets
  • There is no built-in hosting, search analytics, or reader-facing help centre features, so publishing the generated docs anywhere usable still requires separate infrastructure

Pricing, plan by plan

Convoy

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • Self-hosted open source gateway
    • Inbound and outbound webhooks
    • Automatic retries and message broker support
  • Premium$999/month
    • Flat rate irrespective of message volume
    • Portal links and payload transformation
    • RBAC, circuit breaking and white labelling
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • SAML SSO
    • Dedicated support with SLA
    • On-premises deployment assistance
  • Cloud$undefined/month
    • Hosted by Convoy
    • 14 day trial limited to one project and 100 events a day
    • Usage-based tiers above the trial

Doxygen

Free
  • DoxygenFree
    • Full functionality
    • No usage limits
    • Community mailing list and GitHub issue support

Which should you pick?

Choose Convoy if

  • You need inbound and outbound.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
  • You also want broker-driven ingestion.
Convoy review

Choose Doxygen if

  • You need code comment parsing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want multi-format output.
Doxygen review

Questions people ask

Is Convoy or Doxygen better?
Neither clearly leads. Convoy starts at Free and Doxygen at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Convoy or Doxygen?
Convoy starts at Free and Doxygen at Free.
Does Convoy or Doxygen run on more platforms?
Convoy runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud. Doxygen runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Convoy for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Convoy best used for?
Convoy is most often used for a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons, a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence, a team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gateway, an engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing kafka or sqs topic. Of those, a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons and a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence are not what Doxygen is typically brought in for.
What can Convoy do that Doxygen cannot?
Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Broker-driven ingestion, Payload transformation, Portal links. Doxygen covers Code comment parsing, Multi-format output, Call and inheritance graphs, Markdown support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Convoy: Is Convoy really open source?

Yes, the community edition is open source and self-hostable, covering both inbound and outbound webhooks with retries.

Doxygen: Is Doxygen really free with no paid tier?

Yes, it is GPL-licensed open source software with no company selling licences or support contracts.

Convoy: What does premium cost?

A flat 999 US dollars a month, self-hosted, regardless of message volume.

Doxygen: Does Doxygen write documentation for me?

No, it extracts and formats documentation from comments a developer has already written in the source code; it does not generate prose from uncommented code.

Convoy: Does it receive webhooks as well as send them?

Yes, inbound ingestion with verification and deduplication is a first-class feature, unlike most webhook services.

Doxygen: Can it produce anything besides reference documentation?

It can render standalone markdown pages alongside the generated reference content, but it is not a general authoring or publishing platform.

Convoy: Do I have to self-host?

No, there is a hosted cloud, but the trial is capped at 100 events a day and self-hosting is the primary model.

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