head to head · open source
bentopdf vs pdfcraft
bentopdf has 15,862 GitHub stars, 1,382 forks, 156 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. pdfcraft has 2,684 stars, 903 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped today. bentopdf leads on adoption by 491% (15,862 vs 2,684 stars). bentopdf is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; pdfcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. bentopdf has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, pdfcraft 34%. pdfcraft was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (adobe-acrobat, pdf, pdf-generation, pdf-tools), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| bentopdf | pdfcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 903 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick bentopdf if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pdfcraft if
- You want the pdfcraft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and pdfcraft fits your workflow better
About bentopdf
BentoPDF is a JavaScript, browser based PDF toolkit that merges, edits, converts, and processes documents entirely on the client, and it is aimed at individuals and teams who need those document workflows without sending files to a third party service.
read the full bentopdf overview →
About pdfcraft
PdfCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Acrobat built in pure Rust, aimed at anyone who wants a fast native tool to read, organize, secure and edit PDFs without an account or a cloud connection.
read the full pdfcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bentopdf or pdfcraft more popular?
bentopdf has 15,862 GitHub stars and pdfcraft has 2,684. bentopdf has the larger community by that measure.
Are bentopdf and pdfcraft free?
Both are open source. bentopdf is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pdfcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bentopdf and pdfcraft?
bentopdf is written in JavaScript and pdfcraft in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, bentopdf or pdfcraft?
Choose bentopdf if you want the larger community (15,862 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pdfcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.