head to head · open source
Documenso vs docspell
Documenso has 15,062 GitHub stars, 3,225 forks, 238 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docspell has 2,329 stars, 184 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Documenso leads on adoption by 547% (15,062 vs 2,329 stars). Documenso is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; docspell is written in Elm under AGPL-3.0. Documenso has attracted 21% 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 | ★ 15K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Elm |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 184 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Documenso if
- You weight community size — 15K 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
Documenso is open source document signing software. It lives in business software ecosystem, specifically document management and e signatures. Project calls itself open source DocuSign alternative. It provides digital signing for PDF documents. It is written in TypeScript. It is licensed under AGPL 3.0. Repository shows 15014 stars, 3207 forks, 238 open issues, last push 2026 09 14.
read the full Documenso overview →
About docspell
Docspell is a self hosted document management system that helps households, families, and small groups or companies organise the piles of paper, scans, and e mails that accumulate from scanners and other sources, using machine learning and OCR to cut down the manual effort of adding metadata.
read the full docspell overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Documenso or docspell more popular?
Documenso has 15,062 GitHub stars and docspell has 2,329. 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 (15,062 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.