head to head · open source
Documenso vs docspell
Documenso has 15,633 GitHub stars, 3,432 forks, 238 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docspell has 2,343 stars, 186 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Documenso leads on adoption by 567% (15,633 vs 2,343 stars). Documenso is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; docspell is written in Elm under AGPL-3.0. Documenso has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, docspell 8%. Documenso was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (pdf), 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
| Documenso | docspell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Elm |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 186 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Documenso if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 Documenso
The Open Source DocuSign Alternative. Learn more » Discord · Website · Documentation · Issues · Upcoming Releases · Roadmap About Documenso Signing documents digitally should be fast and easy and should be the best practice for every document signed worldwide. This is technically quite easy today, but it also introduces a new party to every signature: The signing tool providers. While this is not a problem in itself, it should make us think about how we want these providers of trust to work. Documenso aims to be the world's most trusted document signing tool. This trust is built by empowering you to self host…
read the full Documenso 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 Documenso or docspell more popular?
Documenso has 15,633 GitHub stars and docspell has 2,343. Documenso has the larger community by that measure.
Are Documenso and docspell free?
Both are open source. Documenso is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and docspell under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Documenso and docspell?
Documenso is written in TypeScript 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, Documenso or docspell?
Choose Documenso if you want the larger community (15,633 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose docspell if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.