head to head · open source
Paperless-ngx vs Ceph
Paperless-ngx has 47,590 GitHub stars, 3,330 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ceph has 17,193 stars, 6,555 forks, 1,353 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Paperless-ngx leads on adoption by 177% (47,590 vs 17,193 stars). Paperless-ngx is written in Python under GPL-3.0; Ceph is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence. Paperless-ngx has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Ceph 38%. Ceph 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
| Paperless-ngx | Ceph | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 17K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 6.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Paperless-ngx if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ceph if
- You want the Ceph feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Ceph fits your workflow better
About Paperless-ngx
Paperless ngx Paperless ngx is a document management system that transforms your physical documents into a searchable online archive so you can keep, well, less paper . Paperless ngx is the official successor to the original Paperless & Paperless ng projects and is designed to distribute the responsibility of advancing and supporting the project among a team of people. Consider joining us! Thanks to the generous folks at DigitalOcean, a demo is available at demo.paperless ngx.com using login demo / demo . Note: demo content is reset frequently and confidential information should not be uploaded. Features Getting…
read the full Paperless-ngx overview →
About Ceph
Ceph a scalable distributed storage system See for current information about Ceph. Status Contributing Code Most of Ceph is dual licensed under the LGPL version 2.1 or 3.0. Some miscellaneous code is either public domain or licensed under a BSD style license. The Ceph documentation is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 (CC BY SA 3.0). Some headers included in the ceph/ceph repository are licensed under the GPL. See the file COPYING for a full inventory of licenses by file. All code contributions must include a valid "Signed off by" line. See the file SubmittingPatches.rst for details on…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Paperless-ngx or Ceph more popular?
Paperless-ngx has 47,590 GitHub stars and Ceph has 17,193. Paperless-ngx has the larger community by that measure.
Are Paperless-ngx and Ceph free?
Both are open source. Paperless-ngx is licensed under GPL-3.0, and Ceph has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Paperless-ngx and Ceph?
Paperless-ngx is written in Python and Ceph 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, Paperless-ngx or Ceph?
Choose Paperless-ngx if you want the larger community (47,590 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Ceph if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.