head to head · open source
bentopdf vs printcraft
bentopdf has 15,862 GitHub stars, 1,382 forks, 156 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. printcraft has 2,684 stars, 903 forks, 36 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; printcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. bentopdf has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, printcraft 34%. printcraft 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 | printcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 printcraft if
- You want the printcraft 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 printcraft 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 printcraft
PrintCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Acrobat, written in pure Rust, for anyone who needs to read, organize, combine, split and secure PDFs in a fast native application on macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD or the web.
read the full printcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bentopdf or printcraft more popular?
bentopdf has 15,862 GitHub stars and printcraft has 2,684. bentopdf has the larger community by that measure.
Are bentopdf and printcraft free?
Both are open source. bentopdf is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and printcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bentopdf and printcraft?
bentopdf is written in JavaScript and printcraft 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 printcraft?
Choose bentopdf if you want the larger community (15,862 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose printcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.