head to head · open source
ONLYOFFICE Docs vs Pdf_Tools
ONLYOFFICE Docs has 6,911 GitHub stars, 1,309 forks, 1,135 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Pdf_Tools has 582 stars, 38 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ONLYOFFICE Docs leads on adoption by 1,087% (6,911 vs 582 stars). ONLYOFFICE Docs is written in Shell under AGPL-3.0; Pdf_Tools is written in Kotlin under Apache-2.0. ONLYOFFICE Docs has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Pdf_Tools 7%. Pdf_Tools 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| ONLYOFFICE Docs | Pdf_Tools | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.9K | ★ 582 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-07-22 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 38 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ONLYOFFICE Docs if
- You weight community size — 6.9K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Pdf_Tools if
- You want the Pdf_Tools feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and Pdf_Tools fits your workflow better
About ONLYOFFICE Docs
ONLYOFFICE Docs is a free collaborative online office suite of viewers and editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, PDFs and diagrams, intended for teams and organisations that need real time document collaboration either inside their own infrastructure or embedded in a third party file sharing platform.
read the full ONLYOFFICE Docs overview →
About Pdf_Tools
PDF Toolkit is an open source, privacy first PDF editor for Android, written in Kotlin and aimed at anyone who needs to merge, split, compress, convert, annotate, or sign PDF documents entirely on the device, with no internet connection and no account.
read the full Pdf_Tools overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Office Suites projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Office Suites field.
Frequently asked questions
Is ONLYOFFICE Docs or Pdf_Tools more popular?
ONLYOFFICE Docs has 6,911 GitHub stars and Pdf_Tools has 582. ONLYOFFICE Docs has the larger community by that measure.
Are ONLYOFFICE Docs and Pdf_Tools free?
Both are open source. ONLYOFFICE Docs is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Pdf_Tools under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ONLYOFFICE Docs and Pdf_Tools?
ONLYOFFICE Docs is written in Shell and Pdf_Tools in Kotlin. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ONLYOFFICE Docs or Pdf_Tools?
Choose ONLYOFFICE Docs if you want the larger community (6,911 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Pdf_Tools if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.