head to head · open source
pdfcpu vs docspell
pdfcpu has 8,842 GitHub stars, 633 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. docspell has 2,329 stars, 184 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pdfcpu leads on adoption by 280% (8,842 vs 2,329 stars). pdfcpu is written in Go under Apache-2.0; docspell is written in Elm under AGPL-3.0. pdfcpu has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, docspell 8%. docspell 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
| pdfcpu | docspell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.8K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Elm |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 633 | ⑂ 184 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pdfcpu if
- You weight community size — 8.8K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick docspell if
- You want the docspell feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Elm
- You evaluated both and docspell fits your workflow better
About pdfcpu
pdfcpu is a PDF processing library and command line tool written in Go. It lives in the Go and Golang ecosystem, is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, and is listed under Business Software in the Document Management and E Signatures category. The project has existed for nine years, carries 8,835 stars and 628 forks, and lists 121 open issues. Its maintainer, Horst Rutter, is a member of the PDF Association, and the project documentation lives at pdfcpu.io. The GitHub topics attached to the repository are cli, go, golang, golang library, pdf, pdf files, and pdf tools, which describes both halves of what the…
read the full pdfcpu overview →
About docspell
Docspell is a self hosted document management system that helps households, families, and small groups or companies organise the piles of paper, scans, and e mails that accumulate from scanners and other sources, using machine learning and OCR to cut down the manual effort of adding metadata.
read the full docspell overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pdfcpu or docspell more popular?
pdfcpu has 8,842 GitHub stars and docspell has 2,329. pdfcpu has the larger community by that measure.
Are pdfcpu and docspell free?
Both are open source. pdfcpu is licensed under Apache-2.0 and docspell under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pdfcpu and docspell?
pdfcpu is written in Go and docspell in Elm. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, pdfcpu or docspell?
Choose pdfcpu if you want the larger community (8,842 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose docspell if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.