Top pick · highest health
Stirling-PDF
Local hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files, such as merging, splitting, file conversions and OCR.
★ 95k 779 commits / 90d ⟳ today Apache-2.0 Docker
Category
Open source document management
A document management system (DMS) is a system used to receive, track, manage and store documents and reduce paper. Repoly tracks 17 open-source document management tools, each scored nightly from its repository activity and ranked by that score alone. Stirling-PDF leads at 100/100 with 779 commits in the last 90 days and 95k stars, followed by Paperless-ngx (99) and BentoPDF (97). 11 of the 17 score 70 or above, 15 publish a Docker image, and the median health is 89. AGPL-3.0 is the most common licence, carried by 8 of them. Between them they stand in for Paperless Cloud, Adobe Acrobat, SharePoint, Wayback Machine and DocuSign.
updated Oct 2026 17 tools ★ 225k stars 15 with Docker median 89
Best for…
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Most starred
95,391 stars on GitHub, the largest community in the category.
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Most active
633 commits in the last 90 days, the fastest-moving codebase here.
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Most permissive
MIT licence with health 97/100: the strongest option if you need to embed or fork commercially.
Ranked by health
Table view
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Paperless-ngx
Scan, index, and archive all of your paper documents with an improved interface (fork of Paperless).
★ 47k 633 commits / 90d ⟳ today GPL-3.0 Docker
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BentoPDF
Powerful, privacy-first, client-side PDF toolkit that allows you to manipulate, edit, merge, and process PDF files directly in your browser.
★ 16k 175 commits / 90d ⟳ today AGPL-3.0 Docker
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Documenso
Digital document signing platform (alternative to DocuSign).
★ 16k 116 commits / 90d ⟳ today AGPL-3.0 Docker
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Docuseal
Create, fill, and sign digital documents (alternative to DocuSign).
★ 19k 322 commits / 90d ⟳ 4 days ago AGPL-3.0 Docker
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Gotenberg
Developer-friendly API to interact with powerful tools like Chromium and LibreOffice for converting numerous document formats (HTML, Markdown, Word, Excel, etc.) into PDF files, and more.
★ 13k 137 commits / 90d ⟳ today MIT Docker
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Papra
Minimalist document storage, management and archiving platform designed to be simple to use and accessible to everyone.
★ 5.6k 112 commits / 90d ⟳ yesterday AGPL-3.0 Docker
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OpenSign
Document signing software (alternative to DocuSign).
★ 7.2k 26 commits / 90d ⟳ today AGPL-3.0 Docker
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SimpleDMS
Easy-to-use, metadata-driven, document management system (DMS) for small businesses that sorts documents almost by itself.
★ 170 129 commits / 90d ⟳ yesterday AGPL-3.0 Docker
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PdfDing
PDF manager, viewer and editor offering a seamless user experience on multiple devices. It's designed to be minimal, fast, and easy to set up using Docker.
★ 23 54 commits / 90d ⟳ 4 days ago AGPL-3.0 Docker
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Papermerge
Document management system focused on scanned documents (electronic archives). Features file browsing in similar way to dropbox/google drive. OCR, full text search, text overlay/selection.
★ 550 46 commits / 90d ⟳ yesterday Apache-2.0 Docker
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Docspell
Auto-tagging document organizer and archive.
★ 2.3k 24 commits / 90d ⟳ 3 days ago GPL-3.0 Docker
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Signature PDF
Sign and manipulate PDFs with collaboration, organization, compression and metadata editing.
★ 832 5 commits / 90d ⟳ 8 days ago AGPL-3.0 Docker
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I, Librarian
Organize PDF papers and office documents. It provides a lot of extra features for students and research groups both in industry and academia.
★ 356 0 commits / 90d ⟳ 11 months ago GPL-3.0
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Mayan EDMS
Electronic document management system for your documents with preview generation, OCR, and automatic categorization among other features.
★ 682 3 commits / 90d ⟳ 1 month ago GPL-2.0 Docker
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EveryDocs
Simple Document Management System for private use with basic functionality to organize your documents digitally.
★ 428 2 commits / 90d ⟳ 3 months ago GPL-3.0 Docker
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SeedDMS
Document Management System with workflows, access rights, fulltext search, and more.
★ 0 0 commits / 90d ⟳ unknown GPL-2.0
| # | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stirling-PDF Docker | 95k | 779 | Apache-2.0 | today | |
| 2 | Paperless-ngx Docker | 47k | 633 | GPL-3.0 | today | |
| 3 | BentoPDF Docker | 16k | 175 | AGPL-3.0 | today | |
| 4 | Documenso Docker | 16k | 116 | AGPL-3.0 | today | |
| 5 | Docuseal Docker | 19k | 322 | AGPL-3.0 | 4 days ago | |
| 6 | Gotenberg Docker | 13k | 137 | MIT | today | |
| 7 | Papra Docker | 5.6k | 112 | AGPL-3.0 | yesterday | |
| 8 | OpenSign Docker | 7.2k | 26 | AGPL-3.0 | today | |
| 9 | SimpleDMS Docker | 170 | 129 | AGPL-3.0 | yesterday | |
| 10 | PdfDing Docker | 23 | 54 | AGPL-3.0 | 4 days ago | |
| 11 | Papermerge Docker | 550 | 46 | Apache-2.0 | yesterday | |
| 12 | Docspell Docker | 2.3k | 24 | GPL-3.0 | 3 days ago | |
| 13 | Signature PDF Docker | 832 | 5 | AGPL-3.0 | 8 days ago | |
| 14 | I, Librarian | 356 | 0 | GPL-3.0 | 11 months ago | |
| 15 | Mayan EDMS Docker | 682 | 3 | GPL-2.0 | 1 month ago | |
| 16 | EveryDocs Docker | 428 | 2 | GPL-3.0 | 3 months ago | |
| 17 | SeedDMS | 0 | 0 | GPL-2.0 | unknown |
How the document management tools compare
Stirling-PDF edges Paperless-ngx 100 to 99, and most of the difference is stars: 95k stars against 47k stars.
The most recent release is Paperless-ngx v3.4.0, published yesterday. Mayan EDMS publishes no tagged releases, which costs up to 25 of the 100 points. I, Librarian, Mayan EDMS and EveryDocs score under 40, so check recent activity before adopting them. By stack, Nodejs (3), PHP (3) and Java (2) are the most common. Stirling-PDF, Gotenberg and Papermerge are permissively licensed; Paperless-ngx, BentoPDF, Documenso and 11 more are copyleft. SeedDMS is not hosted on a forge Repoly can read, so it has no measured score yet.
Document Management: common questions
What is the best open source document management tool?
By Repoly's GitHub health score, Stirling-PDF at 100/100 (779 commits in 90 days, v3.2.2 from 6 days ago). Paperless-ngx is next at 99; Stirling-PDF's lead comes mostly from stars. The score measures maintenance, not features, so shortlist the top few and try them.
Which document management tools are the most actively developed?
Stirling-PDF (779 commits in 90 days), Paperless-ngx (633 commits in 90 days) and Docuseal (322 commits in 90 days). Commit activity is 35 of the 100 health points, the largest single term.
Which document management tools can I run in Docker?
15 of 17 publish a Docker image or Compose file, led by Stirling-PDF, Paperless-ngx, BentoPDF, Documenso, Docuseal and 10 more.
Which document management tools have a permissive licence?
3 of 17: Stirling-PDF (Apache-2.0), Gotenberg (MIT), Papermerge (Apache-2.0). 14 are copyleft.
Which paid products can open source document management tools replace?
Paperless Cloud (Paperless-ngx ranks highest here), Adobe Acrobat (Stirling-PDF ranks highest here), SharePoint (Papermerge ranks highest here), Wayback Machine (Paperless-ngx ranks highest here) and DocuSign (BentoPDF ranks highest here).
