head to head · open source
organize vs PaperKnife
organize has 3,194 GitHub stars, 201 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PaperKnife has 1,533 stars, 107 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. organize leads on adoption by 108% (3,194 vs 1,533 stars). organize is written in Python under MIT; PaperKnife is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. organize has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, PaperKnife 7%. organize 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| organize | PaperKnife | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.2K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 201 | ⑂ 107 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick organize if
- You weight community size — 3.2K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick PaperKnife if
- You want the PaperKnife 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 PaperKnife fits your workflow better
About organize
organize The file management automation tool Full documentation at Read the docs v3 is now available The new version should be much faster and fix a lot of bugs. It also comes with a some new actions, filters and options. If you encounter any other bugs or problems during the migration, please reach out! See the changelog Migration guide About Your desktop is a mess? You cannot find anything in your downloads and documents? Sorting and renaming all these files by hand is too tedious? Time to automate it once and benefit from it forever. organize is a command line, open source alternative to apps like Hazel…
read the full organize overview →
About PaperKnife
PaperKnife A simple, honest PDF utility that respects your privacy. Preview Why I built this Most PDF websites ask you to upload your sensitive documents—bank statements, IDs, contracts—to their servers. Even if they promise to delete them, your data still leaves your device and travels across the internet. I built PaperKnife to solve this. It's a collection of tools that run entirely in your browser or on your phone. Your files never leave your memory, they aren't stored in any database, and no server ever sees them. It works 100% offline. What it can do Modify: Merge multiple files, split pages, rotate, and…
read the full PaperKnife overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Document Management & E-Signatures projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Document Management & E-Signatures field.
Frequently asked questions
Is organize or PaperKnife more popular?
organize has 3,194 GitHub stars and PaperKnife has 1,533. organize has the larger community by that measure.
Are organize and PaperKnife free?
Both are open source. organize is licensed under MIT and PaperKnife under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between organize and PaperKnife?
organize is written in Python and PaperKnife 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, organize or PaperKnife?
Choose organize if you want the larger community (3,194 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose PaperKnife if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.