head to head · open source
docetl vs OpenContracts
docetl has 4,101 GitHub stars, 443 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. OpenContracts has 1,484 stars, 189 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docetl leads on adoption by 176% (4,101 vs 1,484 stars). docetl is written in Python under MIT; OpenContracts is written in Python under MIT. docetl has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, OpenContracts 13%. OpenContracts was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (etl, llm, unstructured-data), 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
| docetl | OpenContracts | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.1K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-05 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 443 | ⑂ 189 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick docetl if
- You weight community size — 4.1K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenContracts if
- You want the OpenContracts feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and OpenContracts fits your workflow better
About docetl
DocETL is a Python system for agentic LLM powered data processing and ETL. It lives in the data engineering and document processing ecosystem, where pipelines must turn structured records and unstructured documents into queryable tables. Users describe each operation in natural language, and DocETL provides operators such as map, reduce, and filter, then orchestrates them across the data.
read the full docetl overview →
About OpenContracts
OpenContracts is an MIT licensed, self hosted document intelligence platform that turns a repository of documents into a programmable citation graph, built for builders and hackers who need a document management system for the agentic world as much as a place to store files.
read the full OpenContracts overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is docetl or OpenContracts more popular?
docetl has 4,101 GitHub stars and OpenContracts has 1,484. docetl has the larger community by that measure.
Are docetl and OpenContracts free?
Both are open source. docetl is licensed under MIT and OpenContracts under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between docetl and OpenContracts?
docetl is written in Python and OpenContracts in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, docetl or OpenContracts?
Choose docetl if you want the larger community (4,101 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OpenContracts if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.