head to head · open source
papermill vs WritingTools
papermill has 6,498 GitHub stars, 465 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. WritingTools has 2,480 stars, 165 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. papermill leads on adoption by 162% (6,498 vs 2,480 stars). papermill is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; WritingTools is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. papermill has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, WritingTools 7%. papermill 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
| papermill | WritingTools | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.5K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-10-05 | 2026-08-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 465 | ⑂ 165 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick papermill if
- You weight community size — 6.5K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick WritingTools if
- You want the WritingTools feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and WritingTools fits your workflow better
About papermill
papermill is a tool for parameterizing, executing, and analyzing Jupyter Notebooks. Papermill lets you: parameterize notebooks execute notebooks This opens up new opportunities for how notebooks can be used. For example: Perhaps you have a financial report that you wish to run with different values on the first or last day of a month or at the beginning or end of the year, using parameters makes this task easier. Do you want to run a notebook and depending on its results, choose a particular notebook to run next? You can now programmatically execute a workflow without having to copy and paste from notebook to…
read the full papermill overview →
About WritingTools
Writing Tools 🍎 Using a Mac? Jump to the macOS (Native Swift Port) section → macOS Instantly proofread and optimize your writing system wide with AI: Summarize content (webpages, YouTube videos, documents...) in a click: Add your own buttons for unlimited potential! ✨ What is Writing Tools? Writing Tools is an Apple Intelligence inspired application for Windows, Linux, and macOS that supercharges your writing with an AI LLM (cloud based or local). With one hotkey press system wide, it lets you fix grammar, optimize text according to your instructions, summarize content (webpages, YouTube videos, etc.), and…
read the full WritingTools overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is papermill or WritingTools more popular?
papermill has 6,498 GitHub stars and WritingTools has 2,480. papermill has the larger community by that measure.
Are papermill and WritingTools free?
Both are open source. papermill is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and WritingTools under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between papermill and WritingTools?
papermill is written in Python and WritingTools in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, papermill or WritingTools?
Choose papermill if you want the larger community (6,498 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose WritingTools if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.