head to head · open source
pdfcpu vs printcraft
pdfcpu has 8,861 GitHub stars, 639 forks, 121 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. printcraft has 2,684 stars, 903 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped today. pdfcpu leads on adoption by 230% (8,861 vs 2,684 stars). pdfcpu is written in Go under Apache-2.0; printcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. pdfcpu has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, printcraft 34%. printcraft 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 | printcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-04 | 2026-10-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 639 | ⑂ 903 |
| 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 printcraft if
- You want the printcraft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and printcraft 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 printcraft
PrintCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Acrobat, written in pure Rust, for anyone who needs to read, organize, combine, split and secure PDFs in a fast native application on macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD or the web.
read the full printcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pdfcpu or printcraft more popular?
pdfcpu has 8,861 GitHub stars and printcraft has 2,684. pdfcpu has the larger community by that measure.
Are pdfcpu and printcraft free?
Both are open source. pdfcpu is licensed under Apache-2.0 and printcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pdfcpu and printcraft?
pdfcpu is written in Go and printcraft in Rust. 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 printcraft?
Choose pdfcpu if you want the larger community (8,861 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose printcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.