head to head · open source
pdfcpu vs organize
pdfcpu has 8,842 GitHub stars, 633 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. organize has 3,147 stars, 189 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. pdfcpu leads on adoption by 181% (8,842 vs 3,147 stars). pdfcpu is written in Go under Apache-2.0; organize is written in Python under MIT. pdfcpu has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, organize 6%. organize 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
| pdfcpu | organize | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.8K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 633 | ⑂ 189 |
| 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 organize if
- You want the organize feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and organize 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 organize
organize is a Python command line tool for automating file management tasks. It is released under the MIT license, has 3145 stars and 189 forks, and is positioned as an open source alternative to desktop file automation apps such as Hazel on macOS and File Juggler on Windows. The project lives in the Python ecosystem and is distributed through pip as the organize tool package.
read the full organize overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pdfcpu or organize more popular?
pdfcpu has 8,842 GitHub stars and organize has 3,147. pdfcpu has the larger community by that measure.
Are pdfcpu and organize free?
Both are open source. pdfcpu is licensed under Apache-2.0 and organize under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pdfcpu and organize?
pdfcpu is written in Go and organize 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, pdfcpu or organize?
Choose pdfcpu if you want the larger community (8,842 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose organize if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.