head to head · open source
pdfcpu vs pdfx
pdfcpu has 8,842 GitHub stars, 633 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. pdfx has 1,063 stars, 122 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. pdfcpu leads on adoption by 732% (8,842 vs 1,063 stars). pdfcpu is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pdfx is written in TypeScript under MIT. pdfcpu has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pdfx 11%. 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.
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Side by side
| pdfcpu | pdfx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.8K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 633 | ⑂ 122 |
| 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 pdfx if
- You want the pdfx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pdfx 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 pdfx
PDFx is a free, MIT licensed, open source desktop application and file format that bundles many PDF documents into a single valid PDF, aimed at people who need to organise, view, reorder and export large collections of documents on macOS, Windows or Linux.
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Frequently asked questions
Is pdfcpu or pdfx more popular?
pdfcpu has 8,842 GitHub stars and pdfx has 1,063. pdfcpu has the larger community by that measure.
Are pdfcpu and pdfx free?
Both are open source. pdfcpu is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pdfx under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pdfcpu and pdfx?
pdfcpu is written in Go and pdfx 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 pdfx?
Choose pdfcpu if you want the larger community (8,842 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pdfx if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.