head to head · open source
Papermark vs pdfx
Papermark has 9,286 GitHub stars, 1,415 forks, 239 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. pdfx has 1,088 stars, 126 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Papermark leads on adoption by 753% (9,286 vs 1,088 stars). Papermark is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; pdfx is written in TypeScript under MIT. Papermark has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, pdfx 12%. pdfx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (open-source, 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 | pdfx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.3K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-28 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 126 |
| 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 pdfx if
- You want the pdfx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pdfx 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 –…
read the full Papermark overview →
About pdfx
PDFx One file. Many documents. Still a PDF. What it is PDFx is an open, backwards compatible extension of PDF that bundles many documents into a single file, plus a minimal desktop viewer for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The files produced are fully valid PDFs: open them anywhere and every page shows in sequence. Open them in PDFx and it splits back into the original documents. Plain single PDFs work as they are. Drag and drop .pdf files, images or folders anywhere in the window. Each document renders as a horizontal strip of pages, and documents stack vertically. Reorder or remove them, then Export PDF to save…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Papermark or pdfx more popular?
Papermark has 9,286 GitHub stars and pdfx has 1,088. Papermark has the larger community by that measure.
Are Papermark and pdfx free?
Both are open source. Papermark has no licence declared in this registry, and pdfx is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Papermark and pdfx?
Papermark is written in TypeScript and pdfx 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, Papermark or pdfx?
Choose Papermark if you want the larger community (9,286 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose pdfx if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.