head to head · open source
CryptPad vs KillerPDF
CryptPad has 8,039 GitHub stars, 873 forks, 401 open issues and last shipped yesterday. KillerPDF has 4,289 stars, 342 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CryptPad leads on adoption by 87% (8,039 vs 4,289 stars). CryptPad is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; KillerPDF is written in C# under GPL-3.0. CryptPad has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, KillerPDF 8%. KillerPDF was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| CryptPad | KillerPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.0K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 873 | ⑂ 342 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CryptPad if
- You weight community size — 8.0K 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 KillerPDF if
- You want the KillerPDF feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and KillerPDF fits your workflow better
About CryptPad
CryptPad CryptPad is a collaboration suite that is end to end encrypted and open source. It is designed to facilitate collaboration by synchronizing changes to documents in real time. Since all the user data is encrypted, in the event of a breach, attackers have no way of accessing the stored content. Furthermore, if the administrators do not modify the code, they and the service also cannot access any information about the users' content. Installation For development Our developer guide provides instructions for setting up a local instance without HTTPS or our more advanced security features. For production…
read the full CryptPad overview →
About KillerPDF
KillerPDF is a free, open source PDF editor for Windows. View, annotate, OCR, merge, split, edit text, draw, sign, fill forms, print, flatten, and open password protected PDFs without an Adobe subscription. Choose the compact Windows installer or the self contained portable edition. Document processing stays on your computer, with no telemetry. Full how tos live on the help page; internals, formats, and limits on the technical page. The KillerPDF.Engine KillerPDF 1.8 introduces The KillerPDF.Engine, an independent and reusable .NET library for PDF 2.0, PDF/A, and PDF/UA document processing. It is a first class…
read the full KillerPDF overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CryptPad or KillerPDF more popular?
CryptPad has 8,039 GitHub stars and KillerPDF has 4,289. CryptPad has the larger community by that measure.
Are CryptPad and KillerPDF free?
Both are open source. CryptPad is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and KillerPDF under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between CryptPad and KillerPDF?
CryptPad is written in JavaScript and KillerPDF in C#. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, CryptPad or KillerPDF?
Choose CryptPad if you want the larger community (8,039 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose KillerPDF if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.