head to head · open source
Docuseal vs pdfx
Docuseal has 18,973 GitHub stars, 1,928 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. pdfx has 1,088 stars, 126 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Docuseal leads on adoption by 1,644% (18,973 vs 1,088 stars). Docuseal is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; pdfx is written in TypeScript under MIT. Docuseal has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, pdfx 12%. Docuseal was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (open-source, 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
| Docuseal | pdfx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 126 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Docuseal if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pdfx if
- You want the pdfx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pdfx fits your workflow better
About Docuseal
DocuSeal Open source document filling and signing DocuSeal is an open source platform that provides secure and efficient digital document signing and processing. Create PDF forms to have them filled and signed online on any device with an easy to use, mobile optimized web tool. ✨ Live Demo ☁️ Try in Cloud Features PDF form fields builder (WYSIWYG) 12 field types available (Signature, Date, File, Checkbox etc.) Multiple submitters per document Automated emails via SMTP Files storage on disk or AWS S3, Google Storage, Azure Cloud Automatic PDF eSignature PDF signature verification Users management Mobile optimized…
read the full Docuseal overview →
About pdfx
PDFx One file. Many documents. Still a PDF. What it is PDFx is an open, backwards compatible extension of PDF that bundles many documents into a single file, plus a minimal desktop viewer for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The files produced are fully valid PDFs: open them anywhere and every page shows in sequence. Open them in PDFx and it splits back into the original documents. Plain single PDFs work as they are. Drag and drop .pdf files, images or folders anywhere in the window. Each document renders as a horizontal strip of pages, and documents stack vertically. Reorder or remove them, then Export PDF to save…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Docuseal or pdfx more popular?
Docuseal has 18,973 GitHub stars and pdfx has 1,088. Docuseal has the larger community by that measure.
Are Docuseal and pdfx free?
Both are open source. Docuseal is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pdfx under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Docuseal and pdfx?
Docuseal is written in Ruby and pdfx 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, Docuseal or pdfx?
Choose Docuseal if you want the larger community (18,973 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pdfx if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.