[opensourcedex]

SnapOtter is a free, open source compliance & risk management project written in TypeScript and released under AGPL-3.0. It has 2,685 GitHub stars, 136 forks and 208 open issues, and was last pushed 9 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #25 of 45 tracked projects in Compliance & Risk Management, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 19 stars over the last 3 tracked days.

What is SnapOtter?

What it is

SnapOtter is an open-source, self-hosted file-processing tool in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. It provides a UI, REST API, and pipelines for conversion, compression, editing, OCR, transcription, metadata stripping, and local AI across images, video, audio, PDFs, and documents. It lives in the Docker-based self-hosted software ecosystem, where teams process media and documents on owned hardware instead of external services.

The problem it solves is handling many file types locally without stitching together separate tools or exposing sensitive content to third-party services. The README says it replaces CloudConvert, Smallpdf, TinyPNG, TinyWow, and Otter.ai, and contrasts with narrower tools such as Stirling-PDF and ConvertX. Topics such as compliance, airgap, on-premise, and homelab indicate this use case.

Key capabilities

  • It exposes more than 200 tools across image, video, audio, PDF, and general files.
  • Image tools cover resize, crop, compress, convert, watermark, color adjustment, duplicate finding, passport photos, and format conversion, with 55+ input formats.
  • Video and audio tools cover conversion, compression, trimming, merging, splitting, subtitles, FPS changes, normalization, pitch shift, and noise reduction.
  • PDF tools include merge, split, compress, convert, protect, unlock, redact, sign, watermark, page numbers, and OCR.
  • Local AI runs on user hardware for background removal, upscaling, photo restoration, object erasure, face blurring, OCR, and transcription.
  • Pipelines chain tools into reusable workflows, default 20 steps, with JSON import and export; the REST API exposes every tool with API key auth and docs at /api/docs.

Who uses it and how

  • Homelab users can deploy one Docker container on AMD64 or ARM64 hardware, including Apple Silicon and Raspberry Pi.
  • Compliance or risk teams can process files on-premise or in airgap environments, using OIDC or SSO login with Google, GitHub, Okta, or OpenID Connect providers.
  • Teams can batch files through the UI or API, chain operations into pipelines, and use the browser-based image editor.
  • Users can operate the interface in 21 languages, including Arabic with RTL support.

Getting started

Typical deployment is Docker: the quick start runs docker run -d --name SnapOtter -p 1349:1349 -v SnapOtter-data:/data snapotter/snapotter:latest, then opens http://localhost:1349 with admin / admin. Production uses a Compose stack with Postgres 17 and Redis 8.

When to use it — and when not to

SnapOtter makes sense when one self-hosted stack must cover image, video, audio, PDF, and document workflows, and when files must remain on owned hardware. A self-hoster still operates the application, storage, and, in production Compose, Postgres 17 and Redis 8. The facts indicate a young repository with 208 open issues, and limits such as pipeline steps and batch size are configuration-dependent, so teams needing a longer track record may prefer the paid products it replaces.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Docker Hub GHCR CI OpenSSF Best Practices License Stars Website Live Demo Discord Sponsor

Open-source, self-hosted file-processing infrastructure. Convert, compress, OCR, transcribe, strip metadata, and run local AI across image, video, audio, PDF, and documents, through a UI, REST API, and pipelines. Your files never leave your network.

The one self-hosted stack that replaces CloudConvert, Smallpdf, TinyPNG, TinyWow, and Otter.ai. 200+ tools across five modalities, on hardware you own.

SnapOtter - Dashboard

Stirling-PDF stops at PDFs. ConvertX stops at conversions. SnapOtter runs all five, and your files never leave your server. Edit images, convert video, transcribe audio, repair PDFs, batch your files: one Docker stack, on hardware you own.

Quick Start

One command, that's it.

docker run -d --name SnapOtter -p 1349:1349 -v SnapOtter-data:/data snapotter/snapotter:latest

Open http://localhost:1349 and log in with admin / admin. That's the whole install.

For the production Compose stack, NVIDIA GPU acceleration, and configuration, see Deployment below.

Key Features

  • 200+ tools across 5 modalities:
    • Image (107): resize, crop, compress, convert, watermark, color adjust, beautify screenshots, generate memes, vectorize, GIF tools, find duplicates, passport photos, plus dedicated format converters (JPG to PNG, HEIC to JPG, WebP to PNG, image to PDF, and more). Supports 55+ input formats (including 23 camera RAW formats) and 17 output formats
    • Video (57): convert, compress, trim, resize, crop, merge, video-to-GIF, extract audio, stabilize, change FPS, burn/extract subtitles, plus dedicated converters (MOV to MP4, MKV to MP4, MP4 to MP3, and more)
    • Audio (27): convert, trim, normalize, volume, fade, pitch shift, silence removal, noise reduction, merge/split, waveform, plus dedicated converters (M4A to MP3, AAC to MP3, OGG to WAV, and more)
    • PDF (29): merge, split, compress, convert, protect/unlock, redact, sign, watermark, page numbers, OCR, plus PDF to JPG/PNG/TIFF
    • Files (23): CSV/JSON/XML/YAML conversion, CSV merge/split, Excel to CSV, chart maker, ZIP create/extract
  • Image editor: Free layer-based editor with brushes, shapes, adjustments, filters, curves, and keyboard shortcuts. Runs in your browser and processes on your hardware
  • Local AI: Remove backgrounds, upscale images, restore and colorize old photos, erase objects, blur faces, enhance faces, extract text (OCR from images and PDFs), transcribe audio, auto-generate video subtitles, expand canvas, and fix transparency. All on your hardware, no internet required. Built-in Fast OCR adds about 25 MiB to the official image; the optional accuracy pack installs on demand
  • OIDC / SSO: Login with Google, GitHub, Okta, or any OpenID Connect provider
  • 21 languages: English, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese. RTL support for Arabic
  • Pipelines: Chain tools into reusable workflows, 20 steps by default (MAX_PIPELINE_STEPS). Import/export as JSON. Batch size is unlimited in the published image and 100 from a source build (MAX_BATCH_SIZE)
  • REST API: Every tool available via API with API key auth. Interactive docs at /api/docs
  • Self-hosted: one docker run for a single-container quick start (embedded Postgres 17 + Redis 8), or the same Postgres 17 + Redis 8 as a Compose stack for production. No external SaaS dependencies
  • Multi-arch: Runs on AMD64 and ARM64 (Intel, Apple Silicon, Raspberry Pi)
  • Privacy first: Your files never leave your network. Basic analytics help us catch bugs and improve tools. Disable them at build time with SNAPOTTER_ANALYTICS=off or at runtime with the in-app admin opt-out (Here's how to do it)

Deployment

The Quick Start one-liner above is all most people need. For production, run the 3-container Compose stack (app + Postgres 17 + Redis 8). Save this as compose.yaml:

services:
  snapotter:
    image: snapotter/snapotter:latest
    ports: ["1349:1349"]
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://snapotter:snapotter@postgres:5432/snapotter
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
    volumes:
      - SnapOtter-data:/data
    depends_on: [postgres, redis]
    restart: unless-stopped
  postgres:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: snapotter
      # Change this for any non-local deployment.
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: snapotter
      POSTGRES_DB: snapotter
    volumes: ["SnapOtter-pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data"]
    restart: unless-stopped
  redis:
    image: redis:8-alpine
    volumes: ["SnapOtter-redisdata:/data"]
    restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
  SnapOtter-data:
  SnapOtter-pgdata:
  SnapOtter-redisdata:

Then start the stack:

docker compose up -d
Have an NVIDIA GPU? Click here for CUDA acceleration.

Use the GPU Compose file for NVIDIA CUDA-accelerated background removal, upscaling, and transcription. OCR deliberately uses the same portable CPU runtime on CPU-only and NVIDIA hosts. Intel/AMD iGPU acceleration through VA-API, Quick Sync, or OpenCL is not supported for AI inference today; those systems run AI tools on CPU. See Docker Tags for the GPU Compose example and benchmarks.

Default credentials:

Field Value
Username admin
Password admin

You will be asked to change your password on first login.

For Docker Compose, persistent storage, and other setup options, see the Getting Started Guide. For NVIDIA CUDA acceleration and tag details, see Docker Tags.

Documentation

Contributing

We welcome bug reports, feature ideas, and pull requests. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide, or jump in:

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is SnapOtter free to use?

SnapOtter is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does SnapOtter do?

Open-source, self-hosted file-processing tool. Convert, compress, OCR, transcribe & run local AI across image, video, audio, PDF & documents, via UI, REST API &

What is SnapOtter written in?

SnapOtter is primarily written in TypeScript. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/snapotter-hq/SnapOtter, and it has 2,685 GitHub stars.