head to head · open source
pdfcraft vs papermerge-core
pdfcraft has 19,220 GitHub stars, 7,216 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped yesterday. papermerge-core has 551 stars, 115 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. pdfcraft leads on adoption by 3,388% (19,220 vs 551 stars). pdfcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; papermerge-core is written in Python under Apache-2.0. pdfcraft has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, papermerge-core 21%. pdfcraft was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (documents, 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.
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Side by side
| pdfcraft | papermerge-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 551 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.2K | ⑂ 115 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pdfcraft if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick papermerge-core if
- You want the papermerge-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and papermerge-core fits your workflow better
About pdfcraft
PdfCraft The PDF workbench; an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Acrobat, rebuilt in pure Rust. Read, organize, combine, split and secure PDFs in a fast, native app, written in Rust from the ground up. macOS · Windows · Linux · FreeBSD · the web PdfCraft on getartcraft.com · ArtCraft · All Crafting Apps The PdfCraft Showcase, a 13 page specimen PDF, open with the All tools panel and threaded comments. [!NOTE] ArtCraft is a community of artists from all walks of life. Digital, generative, music, games — if you make things, you're one of us. Come say hi on Discord. Highlights · Read · Find ·…
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About papermerge-core
⚠️ Important Notice Papermerge DMS Open Source Core SEEKING MAINTAINERS This is the open source version of Papermerge, after 9 years of development. I'm now focusing on Papermerge Cloud (managed, SaaS version). 🔗 Join as maintainer: 🔗 Try Papermerge Cloud: The code remains available for anyone who wants to self host or contribute. Papermerge DMS or simply Papermerge is a open source document management system designed to work with scanned documents (also called digital archives). It extracts text from your scans using OCR, indexes them, and prepares them for full text search. Papermerge provides the look and…
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Frequently asked questions
Is pdfcraft or papermerge-core more popular?
pdfcraft has 19,220 GitHub stars and papermerge-core has 551. pdfcraft has the larger community by that measure.
Are pdfcraft and papermerge-core free?
Both are open source. pdfcraft is licensed under Apache-2.0 and papermerge-core under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pdfcraft and papermerge-core?
pdfcraft is written in Rust and papermerge-core in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, pdfcraft or papermerge-core?
Choose pdfcraft if you want the larger community (19,220 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose papermerge-core if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.