head to head · open source
Papermark vs papermerge-core
Papermark has 9,286 GitHub stars, 1,415 forks, 239 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. papermerge-core has 551 stars, 115 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Papermark leads on adoption by 1,585% (9,286 vs 551 stars). Papermark is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; papermerge-core is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Papermark has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, papermerge-core 21%. papermerge-core was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| Papermark | papermerge-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.3K | ★ 551 |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-28 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 115 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Papermark if
- You weight community size — 9.3K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick papermerge-core if
- You want the papermerge-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and papermerge-core fits your workflow better
About Papermark
Papermark The open source DocSend alternative. papermark.com Papermark is the open source document sharing alternative to DocSend, featuring built in analytics and custom domains. Features Shareable Links: Share your documents securely by sending a custom link. Custom Branding: Add a custom domain and your own branding. Analytics: Gain insights through document tracking and soon page by page analytics. Self hosted, Open source: Host it yourself and customize it as needed. Demo Tech Stack Next.js – Framework TypeScript – Language Tailwind – CSS shadcn/ui UI Components Prisma ORM PostgreSQL Database NextAuth.js –…
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About papermerge-core
⚠️ Important Notice Papermerge DMS Open Source Core SEEKING MAINTAINERS This is the open source version of Papermerge, after 9 years of development. I'm now focusing on Papermerge Cloud (managed, SaaS version). 🔗 Join as maintainer: 🔗 Try Papermerge Cloud: The code remains available for anyone who wants to self host or contribute. Papermerge DMS or simply Papermerge is a open source document management system designed to work with scanned documents (also called digital archives). It extracts text from your scans using OCR, indexes them, and prepares them for full text search. Papermerge provides the look and…
read the full papermerge-core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Papermark or papermerge-core more popular?
Papermark has 9,286 GitHub stars and papermerge-core has 551. Papermark has the larger community by that measure.
Are Papermark and papermerge-core free?
Both are open source. Papermark has no licence declared in this registry, and papermerge-core is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Papermark and papermerge-core?
Papermark is written in TypeScript and papermerge-core in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Papermark or papermerge-core?
Choose Papermark if you want the larger community (9,286 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose papermerge-core if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.