head to head · open source
Papermark vs pdfcpu
Papermark has 9,286 GitHub stars, 1,415 forks, 239 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. pdfcpu has 8,895 stars, 644 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Papermark leads on adoption by 4% (9,286 vs 8,895 stars). Papermark is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; pdfcpu is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Papermark has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, pdfcpu 7%. pdfcpu 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Papermark | pdfcpu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.3K | ★ 8.9K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-28 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 644 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Papermark if
- You weight community size — 9.3K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pdfcpu if
- You want the pdfcpu feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pdfcpu fits your workflow better
About Papermark
Papermark The open source DocSend alternative. papermark.com Papermark is the open source document sharing alternative to DocSend, featuring built in analytics and custom domains. Features Shareable Links: Share your documents securely by sending a custom link. Custom Branding: Add a custom domain and your own branding. Analytics: Gain insights through document tracking and soon page by page analytics. Self hosted, Open source: Host it yourself and customize it as needed. Demo Tech Stack Next.js – Framework TypeScript – Language Tailwind – CSS shadcn/ui UI Components Prisma ORM PostgreSQL Database NextAuth.js –…
read the full Papermark overview →
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 →
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 Papermark or pdfcpu more popular?
Papermark has 9,286 GitHub stars and pdfcpu has 8,895. Papermark has the larger community by that measure.
Are Papermark and pdfcpu free?
Both are open source. Papermark has no licence declared in this registry, and pdfcpu is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Papermark and pdfcpu?
Papermark is written in TypeScript and pdfcpu in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Papermark or pdfcpu?
Choose Papermark if you want the larger community (9,286 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose pdfcpu if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.