Stirling-PDF
Local hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files, such as merging, splitting, file conversions and OCR.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 779 commits in the last 90 days, latest release v3.2.2 (Oct 2026).
Also an alternative to Adobe Acrobat.
At a glance
Stirling-PDF quick facts
- Health score
- 100/100 GOOD
- Stars
- 95,391
- Last commit
- today (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- v3.2.2, Oct 2026
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
Top alternatives to Stirling-PDF
Full rankings: Adobe Acrobat alternatives
In its own words
The project's README opens: "Stirling PDF is a powerful, open-source PDF editing platform. Run it as a personal desktop app, in the browser, or deploy it on your own servers with a private API. Edit, sign, redact, convert, and automate PDFs without sending documents to external services."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
Stirling-PDF scores 100/100, #1 of 17 in Document Management: 779 commits in the last 90 days earn 35.0 of 35 points, the latest release (v3.2.2, 6 days ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 95,391 stars add 19.9 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and Docker support adds the final 10. That places it in the good band (70 and above). It scores full marks on every term.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
Health over time
- Commit activity 35.0 / 35
779 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
v3.2.2 released 6 days ago
- Stars 19.9 / 20
95k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 10.0 / 10
Docker image or Compose file available
Commit activity
- 779
- Last 90 days
- 2,080
- Last 12 months
- today
- Last push
Ranked #1 of 17 tools in Document Management by health , just above Paperless-ngx (#2) .
Details
| Licence | Apache-2.0 |
| Platforms | Docker, Java |
| Latest release | v3.2.2 · 6 days ago |
| Stars | 95,391 |
| Open issues | 297 |
| Docker | Yes |
| Repository | Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF ↗ |
Stirling-PDF vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a comparison page or a category with Stirling-PDF (Document Management), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stirling-PDF (this tool) | 100 | 95k | Apache-2.0 | today |
| Paperless-ngx | 99 | 47k | GPL-3.0 | today |
| BentoPDF | 97 | 16k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
| ConvertX | 97 | 19k | AGPL-3.0 | 2 days ago |
| Gotenberg | 97 | 13k | MIT | today |
| Docspell | 67 | 2.3k | GPL-3.0 | 3 days ago |
Stirling-PDF: common questions
What does Stirling-PDF replace?
Repoly lists Stirling-PDF as an open-source alternative to Adobe Acrobat. Each comparison page ranks every alternative by the same health score, so you can see where Stirling-PDF stands against the others.
Is Stirling-PDF still maintained?
Stirling-PDF had 779 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was today; the latest tagged release, v3.2.2, is from 6 days ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.
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