head to head · open source
Documenso vs signaturepdf
Documenso has 15,062 GitHub stars, 3,225 forks, 238 open issues and last shipped yesterday. signaturepdf has 831 stars, 108 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. Documenso leads on adoption by 1,713% (15,062 vs 831 stars). Documenso is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; signaturepdf is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. Documenso has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, signaturepdf 13%. 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 | signaturepdf | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 831 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 108 |
| 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 signaturepdf if
- You want the signaturepdf feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and signaturepdf 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 signaturepdf
Signature PDF is a free, open source web application under the AGPL 3.0 licence that lets people sign a PDF alone or together with others while also organizing pages, editing metadata, and compressing the file, and it is aimed at individuals, associations, cooperatives, and hosting providers who would rather run document signing on infrastructure they control than hand documents to a third party service.
read the full signaturepdf overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Documenso or signaturepdf more popular?
Documenso has 15,062 GitHub stars and signaturepdf has 831. Documenso has the larger community by that measure.
Are Documenso and signaturepdf free?
Both are open source. Documenso is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and signaturepdf under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Documenso and signaturepdf?
Documenso is written in TypeScript and signaturepdf in JavaScript. 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 signaturepdf?
Choose Documenso if you want the larger community (15,062 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose signaturepdf if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.