Miradorly vs Docusaurus: a framework you build vs a service over your repo

Docusaurus and Miradorly get compared because both start from the same place — markdown in a git repo — and end somewhere completely different. Docusaurus turns your markdown into a website you own as a codebase. Miradorly turns your repo into a service with access control. Which one you want depends on whether "owning a frontend project" sounds like power or like a chore.

What Docusaurus really is

A React framework. That's not a dig — it's the honest category. You scaffold a project, configure sidebars and plugins, build it in CI, deploy it, and upgrade it through major versions like any frontend codebase. In exchange you get real power: full control over the UI, a plugin ecosystem, and — genuinely its best feature — first-class docs versioning, which most hosted tools (Miradorly included, today) don't match.

If you're publishing a public developer portal for an open-source project or a public API, that trade is often worth it.

Where the framework stops: it's still a publisher

For client-facing agency docs, Docusaurus has the same shape of gap as every static generator:

• No access control. The output is static files, public by default. "This client sees only their project" means building your own auth layer or per-client deployments — and maintaining them.
• Comments require GitHub accounts. The standard answer is giscus, which stores comments in GitHub Discussions — every commenter needs a GitHub login. Your client's PM doesn't have one and shouldn't need one.
• No MCP. There's no permission-aware way for an AI agent to query a static site. Copying docs into an agent's context manually is the workaround, and it ignores permissions entirely.
• It's a project. Someone on your team owns the build, the deploys, the upgrades. That's fine once; it's less fine multiplied by every client project.

The same repo as a service

Miradorly connects to the repo you'd point Docusaurus at and serves the markdown behind sign-in — about 30 seconds from install to first render:

• Clients sign in with email or Google, no GitHub, and see only their project (viewer or commenter role).
• Comments are threaded by section with resolved statuses — no third-party embed, no GitHub login.
• **.docignore** keeps internal files out of the index — absent, not hidden.
• The role-aware MCP lets your AI agents (and your client's) search the docs and get only what their account can see.

No build pipeline, no frontend project, no upgrades to schedule. Also, honestly: no React-level control over the site and no multi-version publishing — if you need those, see the verdict below.

Side by side

Bottom line

Public, versioned dev portal with a custom UI — Docusaurus, no contest. Private project docs that clients read and comment on without GitHub accounts, plus AI agents that respect permissions — that's Miradorly, and you never own a frontend project to get it.