head to head · open source
pdfcpu vs Papra
pdfcpu has 8,895 GitHub stars, 644 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Papra has 5,695 stars, 327 forks, 190 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. pdfcpu leads on adoption by 56% (8,895 vs 5,695 stars). pdfcpu is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Papra is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. pdfcpu has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Papra 6%. pdfcpu 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| pdfcpu | Papra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 644 | ⑂ 327 |
| 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 Papra if
- You want the Papra 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 Papra 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 Papra
Papra Document management platform Minimalistic document management and archiving platform. Demo • Docs • Self hosting • Roadmap • Discord Introduction Papra is a minimalistic document management and archiving platform. It is designed to be simple to use and accessible to everyone. Papra is a platform for long term document storage and management, like a digital archive for your documents. Forget about that receipt of that gift you bought for your friend last year, or that warranty for your new phone. With Papra, you can easily store, forget, and retrieve your documents whenever you need them. A live demo of the…
read the full Papra 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 Papra more popular?
pdfcpu has 8,895 GitHub stars and Papra has 5,695. pdfcpu has the larger community by that measure.
Are pdfcpu and Papra free?
Both are open source. pdfcpu is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Papra under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pdfcpu and Papra?
pdfcpu is written in Go and Papra 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 Papra?
Choose pdfcpu if you want the larger community (8,895 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Papra if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.