SwaggerHub is SmartBear's design and collaboration suite, priced per user. ApiNotes focuses on publishing: hosted docs, an automatic changelog with breaking-change alerts and subscriber emails, at one flat price.
SwaggerHub is a hosted workspace for designing, versioning and sharing OpenAPI definitions, with domains, style validation and an API portal option. It suits organisations that want collaborative design and governance in one SmartBear tool. Pricing is per user, so the bill grows with headcount, and it is designed around the editing team rather than the consumers of the API.
ApiNotes is built around the consumers. Publish the OpenAPI file from CI, and readers get hosted docs, version switching, an automatic changelog with breaking-change flags and email notifications. Team is $19/month flat for up to five team members.
| Feature | SwaggerHub | ApiNotes |
|---|---|---|
| Basics | ||
| What it is | Hosted API design + collaboration suite | Hosted docs + changelog platform |
| Hosting included | ✅ Included | ✅ your-api.apinotes.io, CDN-cached |
| Custom domain | ⚠️ Higher tiers / portal | ✅ CNAME, TLS handled (Team) |
| Documentation | ||
| Layout | ✅ Reference via SwaggerUI | ✅ Three-column reference |
| Code samples | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ 10+ languages per endpoint |
| Try-it console | ✅ Try-it via Swagger UI | ✅ Try-it panel with auth |
| Search | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ Full-text across endpoints and guides |
| Guides and prose pages | ⚠️ Portal product | ✅ Documentation editor |
| Server-side rendering / SEO | ⚠️ Depends on plan | ✅ SSR, indexable, per-project meta |
| Change management | ||
| Version history | ✅ Version management in the editor | ✅ Every push kept, switch versions in docs |
| Automatic changelog | ❌ No published, subscriber-facing changelog | ✅ Written from the spec diff on every push |
| Breaking-change detection | ⚠️ Style checks, not consumer alerts | ✅ Flagged per release |
| Email subscribers + RSS/JSON feed | ❌ | ✅ 25 on Starter, unlimited on Team |
| CI/CD and access | ||
| Publish from CI | ✅ CLI and integrations | ✅ GitHub Action or one API call |
| PR comment with breaking changes | ❌ | ✅ GitHub Action (Team) |
| Spec validation | ✅ Style validation | ✅ Validator with line numbers and hints |
| Private docs | ✅ Private APIs | ✅ Password or magic link (Team) |
| Price | Per user per month (see swagger.io/pricing) | Free Starter / $19 per month Team, flat |
SwaggerHub column is summarised from SmartBear's public product pages; pricing is per user, so check swagger.io for current figures. Verified October 2026.
SwaggerHub charges per user. A larger design team means a larger bill, even if most members only occasionally touch the spec.
ApiNotes Team is $19 per month flat and includes five team members, private docs, a custom domain and your branding. Starter is free.
SwaggerHub is where definitions are authored, reviewed and shared inside an organisation. Published documentation is one output among several.
If your spec already lives in Git, ApiNotes skips the workspace. Push the file and the docs, versions and changelog are updated.
Version management exists for the people editing the API. There is no subscriber email or RSS feed that tells consumers what changed.
Every push produces a changelog entry with breaking changes flagged, an RSS / JSON feed and emails to subscribers.
If you already use Swagger UI and the SmartBear ecosystem, SwaggerHub is the integrated step up.
ApiNotes reads the same Swagger 2.0 and OpenAPI files, so moving does not change how you write the spec. See also Swagger UI vs ApiNotes.
SwaggerHub is priced per user per month with team and enterprise tiers. Check swagger.io for the current plans, since they change and are not reproduced here.
Starter, $0: 1 public API, hosted docs, changelog for the last 10 releases, breaking-change detection, 25 subscribers, GitHub Action, Try-it panel. Team, $19/month flat: 5 APIs, full changelog history, unlimited subscribers, PR comments, private docs, 25 guest readers, custom domain, your own branding, 5 team members. 14-day trial, no card needed.
Paste the same OpenAPI file you use today. Hosted docs, a changelog and breaking-change alerts are live in under a minute.