Do I need Swagger or something else for API docs?

Not necessarily. Swagger is just one popular option for API documentation, and whether you need it depends on your API and workflow.

Common choices

• OpenAPI + Swagger UI:
  Best if you want interactive docs, request/response examples, and a standard machine-readable spec. “Swagger” usually refers to the tooling around the OpenAPI Specification.
• Redoc:
  Great-looking read-only docs from an OpenAPI spec.
• Postman collections:
  Useful for sharing and testing APIs, but not ideal as your only public docs.
• GraphQL:
  If you use GraphQL, you usually document via schema introspection, GraphiQL, Apollo Studio, etc., not Swagger.
• Built-in framework docs:
  Many frameworks generate docs automatically (for example, FastAPI, NestJS, ASP.NET, Springdoc).

When Swagger/OpenAPI is worth using

Use it if you want:

• interactive “try it out” docs
• a shared contract between frontend/backend teams
• client SDK generation
• validation and consistency
• public API documentation

When you might not need it

You may not need Swagger if:

• your API is internal and small
• you already have strong docs elsewhere
• your API is GraphQL
• you only need a simple README or Postman collection

Practical recommendation

For most REST APIs, OpenAPI + Swagger UI is the safest default.

If you want, I can recommend the best API doc setup for your stack (Node, Python, .NET, Java, etc.).