Theneo vs Mintlify: Pricing, Features & AI (2025) - A Practical Guide for Teams Comparing API Documentation Platforms

If both look great, what should actually drive your decision?

If you’re evaluating Theneo and Mintlify, you’re already looking at two of the most polished, developer-friendly documentation platforms on the market. Both deliver the clean, fast, “Stripe-like” reading experience developers expect, searchable content, code samples, try-it consoles, and a professional feel that shortens time-to-first-call. For most teams, the look and feel isn’t the sticking point; you can achieve that on either platform.

Where decisions are really made is in the constraints and workflows around that experience:

• How many seats you get before costs spike.
• Whether AI is a superpower or a metered add-on.
• How deeply you can customize structure (not just theme) without fighting templates.
• Whether non-developers can collaborate in real time or everything funnels through Git PRs.
• How far you can go with access control, SSO, and self-hosting as you scale.

This article walks through those practical differences.

Context & credibility: Theneo and Mintlify came out of the same Y Combinator batch, and Theneo built its own language model before ChatGPT, now also leverage OpenAI while continuing to ship features that automate the entire API-docs lifecycle (spec → docs → guides → release notes → changelog). That history matters because it explains why certain capabilities are native in Theneo rather than bolted on later.

What both platforms get right (Developer & User Experience)

• Modern reading experience: fast, clean UI, great typography, responsive layout.
• Developer-first docs: interactive reference, code examples, reliable search, and sensible navigation.
• Design parity: if you already love your current Mintlify site’s aesthetics, you can replicate that look and feel in Theneo - theme controls, CSS/JS, and templating make 1:1 parity realistic.

Bottom line: You won’t choose between Theneo and Mintlify on “how it looks.” You’ll choose on how it works for your team and your scale.

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Where the paths diverge

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1) AI & Automation (from “assist” to “autopilot”)

Theneo

• Generates content end-to-end: API spec → reference docs → examples → summaries → user guides.
• Ops content on autopilot: AI release notes and automatic changelog generation when the API changes.
• Ask-AI (industry-first) for end-users to query docs in natural language; configurable prompts.
• AI export to destinations your team uses (e.g., Coda, ChatGPT, Claude) to reuse content.
• Broad MCP/MCP-like generator options and extensions beyond the basics.

Mintlify

• Strong Ask-AI-style assistant, LLM-aided improvements.
• Does not offer the same scope of AI content generation and ops automation (release notes, changelogs, multi-format content creation) as Theneo.

What it means in practice
If you want AI to author and maintain large portions of your docs (not just answer questions), Theneo’s automation saves hours weekly and prevents drift.

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2) Seats, AI metering, and total cost of ownership

Theneo

• Seats baked in: 20 / 50 / 100 seats included across tiers no instant per-seat creep.
• AI without a meter (Business+): unlimited Ask-AI + AI writer + AI release notes + auto-changelogs.

Mintlify

• Smaller included seat pools (e.g., 5 on Pro), then per-seat fees.
• AI is metered (e.g., fixed messages/month, then per-message overage).

What it means in practice
For a real team that uses AI heavily, Theneo’s workspace pricing + unmetered AI keeps costs predictable as usage grows.

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3) Customization of structure (not just theme)

Theneo

• No hard layout constraints: mix API endpoints inside how-to guides, create deeply nested structures, or present the same endpoint in multiple flows.
• Edit your OpenAPI spec directly in Theneo (add/adjust properties) and re-export a clean OpenAPI when you’re done.
• Achieve the same “Mintlify look” if you want or go further with global CSS/JS and portal templates.

Mintlify

• Beautiful theming and MDX-based customization, but page and section structures tend to follow opinionated patterns.
• Editing the spec typically means editing externally and re-importing.

What it means in practice
If you’re a product org that thinks in flows (not just endpoint lists), or you need speculative drafts before your final spec is ready, Theneo’s structure-first model and inline spec editing are a real advantage.

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4) Collaboration & workflow (multi-role, multi-user, real-time)

Theneo

• Google-Docs-style collaboration: up to 100 people editing simultaneously, with comments, reviews, suggestions.
• Merge safety: changes made in the web editor and updates to the API spec merge cleanly no content loss.
• Access management: roles (Editor / Reviewer / Publisher / Viewer), workspace groups, guest members.

Mintlify

• Collaboration mainly via Git PRs and reviews; no true real-time co-editing inside the editor.

What it means in practice
Non-dev stakeholders (PM, Docs, Solutions, Support) can work in parallel without opening a repo or a PR, while engineers keep their preferred Git flow.

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5) Access, identity, and hosting control

Theneo

• Fine-grained privacy: make specific endpoints or sections private, or even user-specific.
• External customer sign-in on your custom domain (fully white-labeled).
• Enterprise identity: Okta / Entra (SAML), OAuth 2.0, JWT, custom SSO/login flows.
• Self-hosting option (Enterprise) for maximum governance and data control.

Mintlify

• Gated sites and SSO at higher tiers; self-hosting not advertised; granular per-section privacy is limited.

What it means in practice
If you need private partner docs, per-customer pages, or strict data residency, Theneo’s governance and self-host flexibility make security teams happy.

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6) Developer tooling & integrations (velocity)

Theneo

• CLI, SDK, VS Code extension, Postman sync.
• Two-way sync with GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket; multiple repo sources.
• Export/import across Markdown, JSON, and OpenAPI; SDK import; history & revert; versioning; pre-request scripts.
• Multi-hub publishing (up to 20 hubs) for brands, environments, or product lines.

Mintlify

• Solid Git workflows, migration services, Slack integrations, PDF exports, MCP server support.
• Some multi-repo/multi-hub scenarios move you into Custom territory.

What it means in practice
If you ship many APIs or need multiple branded hubs, Theneo keeps you out of “custom-only” pricing while preserving speed.

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Executive snapshot

• Seats baked in: Theneo bundles 20 / 50 / 100 seats; Mintlify Pro includes 5, then per-seat fees.
• AI with no meter (Business+): Unlimited Ask-AI, AI writer, AI release notes, auto-changelog. Mintlify meters AI.
• Enterprise control: Self-hosting, custom roles/permissions, Okta/Entra/JWT, private hub via SSO/OAuth.
• Dev velocity: CLI, SDK, VS Code, Postman sync, Bitbucket, multi-hub (to 20), advanced security & IP whitelisting.
• Lower TCO: Workspace pricing + unmetered AI + large seat pools = predictable spend.

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Tier-by-tier comparison

Starter / Free (Theneo) vs Hobby (Mintlify)

Theneo advantages

• Up to 20 seats included; workspace-based usage (not project-capped).
• Serious API-docs stack on day one: rich Markdown, API playground, code generation, versioning, history & revert, automatic changelog, user feedback, analytics, advanced explorer.
• Platform plumbing early: webhooks, websockets, Slack product integration, migration services, multiple repo sources.

So what? Launch a real multi-user hub for free with Theneo, no “day-one” seat ceiling.

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Business ($120/mo/workspace) vs Pro ($250/mo)

Theneo advantages

• 50 seats included (vs. 5 + per-seat fees).
• Unlimited AI (Ask-AI + writer + release notes + auto-changelog).
• Publishing & workflow: multi-repo sources, Slack integration.
• Dev tooling: CLI, SDK, VS Code, GitHub/Bitbucket sync; Postman sync available at higher tier.
• Branding & management: custom domain, developer-portal templates, SEO controls, granular user/section management.

So what? At roughly half the price, a 50-person team gets unmetered AI and a fuller toolchain.

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Growth ($400/mo/workspace) vs Pro / Custom mix

Theneo advantages

• 100 seats included; AI still unlimited.
• Multi-hub (up to 20), global CSS/JS, custom hub design, custom ChatGPT prompt, custom analytics & tag management, email & comms branding.
• Security & Ops: IP whitelisting, webhooks, websockets, multiple repo sources.
• Public API access on Growth (not only Enterprise).

So what? Theneo rolls what Mintlify labels Custom-only into a predictable $400 plan.

Enterprise (Theneo) vs Custom (Mintlify)

Theneo advantages

• Self-hosting for full control.
• Identity & access: custom roles/permissions, custom dashboards/logs, automation flows, private hub via SSO/OAuth, internal & public hubs.
• Parity on guarantees: uptime, custom SLAs, dedicated support/account manager plus self-hosting and deeper governance.

So what? Same enterprise assurances with more control over data and identity.

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Migration note for Mintlify users: keep your look & feel

If you already like how your Mintlify site looks, you can keep it:

• Theme parity with brand editor + CSS/JS.
• Structure freedom to mirror any nav hierarchy (or improve it).
• Inline spec editing to fix issues without a re-import dance.
• Real-time collaboration so PMs and writers contribute without Git PR overhead.
• Private sections/endpoints and external sign-in on your own domain for partner content.

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Why some teams prefer Theneo

• AI that writes and maintains docs (not just chat): spec → docs → guides → release notes → changelogs.
• Unlimited AI on Business+ tiers; big seat pools to match how teams actually work.
• No structural limits: organize content around user journeys, not just endpoints.
• Inline spec editing + clean OpenAPI export.
• Enterprise depth early: SSO/SSO variants, private hubs, section-level privacy, self-hosting.
• Velocity: CLI, SDK, VS Code, Postman, two-way Git (incl. Bitbucket), multi-hub publishing.

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If you want the same sleek experience developers love without seat limits, AI meters, or structure constraints, spin up a free Theneo workspace and try:

• Ask-AI on your own docs
• One-click AI release notes & changelogs
• Multi-hub publishing and real-time collaboration

We’re happy to share a guided migration from Mintlify - bring your current site and we’ll help you match the look, then unlock the extra automation.

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