head to head · open source
pdfcpu vs PaperKnife
pdfcpu has 8,895 GitHub stars, 644 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PaperKnife has 1,525 stars, 107 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. pdfcpu leads on adoption by 483% (8,895 vs 1,525 stars). pdfcpu is written in Go under Apache-2.0; PaperKnife is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. pdfcpu has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, PaperKnife 7%. pdfcpu was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (pdf, pdf-tools), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| pdfcpu | PaperKnife | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 644 | ⑂ 107 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pdfcpu if
- You weight community size — 8.9K 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 PaperKnife if
- You want the PaperKnife feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and PaperKnife fits your workflow better
About pdfcpu
pdfcpu: PDF tooling for Go and the command line pdfcpu is a PDF processing library and command line tool written in Go. It supports validation, optimization, encryption, signing, document assembly, content extraction, and other common PDF operations. pdfcpu supports PDF versions through PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000 2). PDF 2.0 validation support is basic and continuously improving. Horst Rutter, the maintainer of pdfcpu, is a member of the PDF Association. Installation Usage CLI Validate a PDF: Merge two PDFs: Go API See API documentation for usage examples. Features Validate, optimize, split, trim, and merge PDFs Extract…
read the full pdfcpu overview →
About PaperKnife
PaperKnife A simple, honest PDF utility that respects your privacy. Preview Why I built this Most PDF websites ask you to upload your sensitive documents—bank statements, IDs, contracts—to their servers. Even if they promise to delete them, your data still leaves your device and travels across the internet. I built PaperKnife to solve this. It's a collection of tools that run entirely in your browser or on your phone. Your files never leave your memory, they aren't stored in any database, and no server ever sees them. It works 100% offline. What it can do Modify: Merge multiple files, split pages, rotate, and…
read the full PaperKnife overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Document Management & E-Signatures projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Document Management & E-Signatures field.
Frequently asked questions
Is pdfcpu or PaperKnife more popular?
pdfcpu has 8,895 GitHub stars and PaperKnife has 1,525. pdfcpu has the larger community by that measure.
Are pdfcpu and PaperKnife free?
Both are open source. pdfcpu is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PaperKnife under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pdfcpu and PaperKnife?
pdfcpu is written in Go and PaperKnife 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, pdfcpu or PaperKnife?
Choose pdfcpu if you want the larger community (8,895 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose PaperKnife if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.