head to head · open source
organize vs docspell
organize has 3,194 GitHub stars, 201 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docspell has 2,351 stars, 186 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. organize leads on adoption by 36% (3,194 vs 2,351 stars). organize is written in Python under MIT; docspell is written in Elm under AGPL-3.0. organize has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, docspell 8%. organize was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (document-management), 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
| organize | docspell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.2K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Elm |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-11-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 201 | ⑂ 186 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick organize if
- You weight community size — 3.2K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick docspell if
- You want the docspell feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Elm
- You evaluated both and docspell fits your workflow better
About organize
organize The file management automation tool Full documentation at Read the docs v3 is now available The new version should be much faster and fix a lot of bugs. It also comes with a some new actions, filters and options. If you encounter any other bugs or problems during the migration, please reach out! See the changelog Migration guide About Your desktop is a mess? You cannot find anything in your downloads and documents? Sorting and renaming all these files by hand is too tedious? Time to automate it once and benefit from it forever. organize is a command line, open source alternative to apps like Hazel…
read the full organize overview →
About docspell
Docspell Document Management System (DMS) Docspell is a personal document organizer. Or sometimes called a "Document Management System" (DMS). You'll need a scanner to convert your papers into files. Docspell can then assist in organizing the resulting mess :wink:. It can unify your files from scanners, emails and other sources. It is targeted for home use, i.e. families, households and also for smaller groups/companies. You can associate tags, set correspondends and lots of other predefined and custom metadata. If your documents are associated with such meta data, you can quickly find them later using the…
read the full docspell overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is organize or docspell more popular?
organize has 3,194 GitHub stars and docspell has 2,351. organize has the larger community by that measure.
Are organize and docspell free?
Both are open source. organize is licensed under MIT and docspell under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between organize and docspell?
organize is written in Python and docspell in Elm. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, organize or docspell?
Choose organize if you want the larger community (3,194 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose docspell if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.