head to head · open source
pdfcpu vs PaperKnife
pdfcpu has 8,842 GitHub stars, 633 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. PaperKnife has 1,459 stars, 103 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. pdfcpu leads on adoption by 506% (8,842 vs 1,459 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%. PaperKnife 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.
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Side by side
| pdfcpu | PaperKnife | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.8K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 633 | ⑂ 103 |
| 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 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 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 PaperKnife
PaperKnife is a privacy first PDF utility built with React and TypeScript and distributed as a web application and an Android application. It belongs to the open source document management and PDF tools ecosystem, and its stated architecture is zero server: documents are processed on the user's device instead of being uploaded to a remote service. Core processing uses pdf lib and pdfjs dist in a sandboxed WebAssembly environment, the Android version is powered by Capacitor, and the repository is licensed under AGPL 3.0.
read the full PaperKnife overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pdfcpu or PaperKnife more popular?
pdfcpu has 8,842 GitHub stars and PaperKnife has 1,459. 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 (8,842 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.