Documentation · pricing
ReadMe pricing
ReadMe publishes 4 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 30 August 2026, ReadMe pricing is free, then $99/month across 4 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free, then $99/month
- Model
- Per project per month
- Tiers
- 4
- Free tier
- Yes
ReadMe plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 3 | Entry tier |
| Startup | $99/month | 4 | +$99/month, 4 more features |
| Business | $399/month | 4 | +$300/month, 3 more features |
| Enterprise | On request | 4 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Free
FreeThe entry tier. It covers one project on a readme subdomain, openapi reference and guides, basic editing and publishing.
Startup
$99/monthOver Free, this tier adds:
- One project
- Custom domain
- API metrics from request logs
- Documentation versioning
Business
$399/monthOver Startup, this tier adds:
- SAML single sign-on
- Private and partner-only documentation
- Staging before publish
Enterprise
On requestOver Business, this tier adds:
- Multiple projects under one contract
- Negotiated support and uptime terms
- Security review and custom deployment questions
- Pricing on application
Where ReadMe stops being free
Free, Free
- One project on a ReadMe subdomain
- OpenAPI reference and guides
- Basic editing and publishing
Startup, $99/month
The first thing you pay for:
- One project
- Custom domain
- API metrics from request logs
- Documentation versioning
What the product covers
The full ReadMe feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- OpenAPI reference
- Try It playground
- API metrics
- Personalised docs
- Versioning
- Guides and recipes
- Git sync via rdme
- Changelog and support widget
People bring ReadMe in for publishing a public api reference where a developer can send a live request with their own key from the documentation page, cutting support load by showing an integrating developer their own recent failing requests next to the endpoint description, keeping documentation versions aligned with api versions so customers on an older release read the matching reference, shipping documentation from the same pull request as the code change using the rdme command line tool in ci. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to ReadMe are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Documentation
Too few documentation tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ReadMe (this page) | Free, then $99/month | Per project per month | - | |
| Paligo | On request | Per author seat per year | - | vs ReadMe |
| Guidde | Free, then $19/month | Per creator per month | - | vs ReadMe |
| Adobe RoboHelp | On request | Per user per month, annual commitment | - | vs ReadMe |
| HelpDocs | On request | Per editor seat per month | - | vs ReadMe |
| MadCap Flare | On request | Per author per year, annual subscription only | - | vs ReadMe |
| Doxygen | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs ReadMe |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the ReadMe badges page.
Before you pay for ReadMe
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 4 tiers between Free and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
ReadMe runs on web, and is published by ReadMe of San Francisco, California, United States. The full record is on the ReadMe review, and the rest of the category is under best documentation tools.
ReadMe pricing questions
- How much does ReadMe cost?
- ReadMe publishes 4 tiers, from Free for Free up to On request for Enterprise. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does ReadMe have a free plan?
- Yes. The Free tier costs nothing and covers one project on a readme subdomain, openapi reference and guides, basic editing and publishing. Paying starts at $99/month for Startup.
- What is the difference between Free and Startup on ReadMe?
- Startup costs $99/month against Free, and adds one project, custom domain, api metrics from request logs, documentation versioning.
- Is the Enterprise plan on ReadMe worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is multiple projects under one contract, negotiated support and uptime terms, security review and custom deployment questions, pricing on application. It costs On request against $99/month for Startup. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- Which documentation tools can I use without paying?
- 4 of the 8 documentation tools listed alongside ReadMe have a free tier: Guidde, Doxygen, Fumadocs, BookStack.
- What am I actually paying for with ReadMe?
- The record lists 8 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for publishing a public api reference where a developer can send a live request with their own key from the documentation page, cutting support load by showing an integrating developer their own recent failing requests next to the endpoint description, keeping documentation versions aligned with api versions so customers on an older release read the matching reference.
- Does ReadMe charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 4 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these ReadMe prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare ReadMe against before paying?
- The closest documentation tools in this directory are Paligo, Guidde, Adobe RoboHelp, HelpDocs. Each has a side-by-side comparison with ReadMe covering price, platforms and features.