head to head · open source
wordcraft vs KillerPDF
wordcraft has 17,038 GitHub stars, 4,689 forks, 331 open issues and last shipped yesterday. KillerPDF has 4,289 stars, 342 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wordcraft leads on adoption by 297% (17,038 vs 4,289 stars). wordcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; KillerPDF is written in C# under GPL-3.0. wordcraft has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, KillerPDF 8%. KillerPDF 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
| wordcraft | KillerPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.7K | ⑂ 342 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick wordcraft if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick KillerPDF if
- You want the KillerPDF feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and KillerPDF fits your workflow better
About wordcraft
WordCraft Writing and document design; an open source, clean room reimplementation of Microsoft Word, rebuilt in pure Rust. A fast, open source word processor with the Word workflow you already know: the ribbon, styles, tables, track changes, references and mail merge. It reads and writes .docx, runs natively on macOS, Windows, Linux and BSD, and in the browser via WebAssembly. By the ArtCraft team. WordCraft on getartcraft.com · ArtCraft · All Crafting Apps The Open Studio Handbook , WordCraft's built in sample: the ribbon, live Styles gallery, rulers and the Navigation pane. [!NOTE] ArtCraft is a community of…
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About KillerPDF
KillerPDF is a free, open source PDF editor for Windows. View, annotate, OCR, merge, split, edit text, draw, sign, fill forms, print, flatten, and open password protected PDFs without an Adobe subscription. Choose the compact Windows installer or the self contained portable edition. Document processing stays on your computer, with no telemetry. Full how tos live on the help page; internals, formats, and limits on the technical page. The KillerPDF.Engine KillerPDF 1.8 introduces The KillerPDF.Engine, an independent and reusable .NET library for PDF 2.0, PDF/A, and PDF/UA document processing. It is a first class…
read the full KillerPDF overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is wordcraft or KillerPDF more popular?
wordcraft has 17,038 GitHub stars and KillerPDF has 4,289. wordcraft has the larger community by that measure.
Are wordcraft and KillerPDF free?
Both are open source. wordcraft is licensed under Apache-2.0 and KillerPDF under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wordcraft and KillerPDF?
wordcraft is written in Rust and KillerPDF in C#. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, wordcraft or KillerPDF?
Choose wordcraft if you want the larger community (17,038 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose KillerPDF if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.