head to head · open source
Documenso vs Papra
Documenso has 15,062 GitHub stars, 3,225 forks, 238 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Papra has 5,466 stars, 301 forks, 190 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Documenso leads on adoption by 176% (15,062 vs 5,466 stars). Documenso is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Papra is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Documenso has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, Papra 6%. Papra 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
| Documenso | Papra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 5.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 301 |
| 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 Papra if
- You want the Papra feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Papra 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 Papra
Papra is a minimalistic, self hostable, open source document management and archiving platform, written in TypeScript under the AGPL 3.0 licence, for anyone who needs to store documents for the long term and find them again later.
read the full Papra overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Documenso or Papra more popular?
Documenso has 15,062 GitHub stars and Papra has 5,466. Documenso has the larger community by that measure.
Are Documenso and Papra free?
Both are open source. Documenso is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Papra under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Documenso and Papra?
Documenso is written in TypeScript and Papra in TypeScript. 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 Papra?
Choose Documenso if you want the larger community (15,062 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Papra if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.