15 open-source apps
Best self-hosted Document Management apps
Document management, PDF tools and e-signature software. Scan, organize, search and sign documents without a cloud subscription.
The most popular self-hosted apps for document management on GitHub are Stirling-PDF, Paperless-ngx and Docuseal, ranked by stars below.
Ranked by GitHub stars
All 15 Document Management apps
Stirling-PDF
Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF
Local hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files, such as merging, splitting, file conversions and OCR.
Document ManagementTypeScriptDockerPaperless-ngx
paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx
Scan, index, and archive all of your paper documents with an improved interface (fork of Paperless).
Document ManagementPythonDockerDocuseal
docusealco/docuseal
Create, fill, and sign digital documents (alternative to DocuSign).
Document ManagementRubyDockerBentoPDF
alam00000/bentopdf
Powerful, privacy-first, client-side PDF toolkit that allows you to manipulate, edit, merge, and process PDF files directly in your browser.
Document ManagementJavaScriptDockerDocumenso
documenso/documenso
Digital document signing platform (alternative to DocuSign).
Document ManagementTypeScriptDockerGotenberg
gotenberg/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.
Document ManagementGoDockerOpenSign
OpenSignLabs/OpenSign
Document signing software (alternative to DocuSign).
Document ManagementJavaScriptDockerPapra
papra-hq/papra
Minimalist document storage, management and archiving platform designed to be simple to use and accessible to everyone.
Document ManagementTypeScriptDockerSnapOtter
snapotter-hq/SnapOtter
Suite of 200+ web tools for converting and editing images, videos, audio and PDFs, including a layer-based image editor, OCR, transcription, background removal and batch processing pipelines…
Document ManagementTypeScriptDockerDocspell
eikek/docspell
Auto-tagging document organizer and archive.
Document ManagementElmDockerSignature PDF
24eme/signaturepdf
Sign and manipulate PDFs with collaboration, organization, compression and metadata editing.
Document ManagementJavaScriptDockerPapermerge
papermerge/papermerge-core
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.
Document ManagementPythonDockerEveryDocs
jonashellmann/everydocs-core
Simple Document Management System for private use with basic functionality to organize your documents digitally.
Document ManagementRubyDockerI, Librarian
mkucej/i-librarian-free
Organize PDF papers and office documents. It provides a lot of extra features for students and research groups both in industry and academia.
Document ManagementPHPSimpleDMS
simpledms/simpledms
Easy-to-use, metadata-driven, document management system (DMS) for small businesses that sorts documents almost by itself.
Document ManagementGoDocker
Keep exploring
Related categories
What is the best self-hosted app for document management?
By GitHub stars, Stirling-PDF is the most popular self-hosted app for document management with 93,634 stars, followed by Paperless-ngx and Docuseal. The best fit depends on your needs, so compare Docker support, license and recent activity on each app page.
Are these Document Management apps free?
Yes. All 15 apps in this category are open source and free to run on your own server. A few also offer a paid hosted plan or enterprise add-ons, but self-hosting the open-source edition costs nothing beyond your hardware.
How do I install a self-hosted Document Management app?
14 of the 15 apps here ship a Docker image, which is the easiest route: rent a small VPS or use a home server, install Docker, and start the app with its Docker Compose file. Apps without an image list their native install steps in the README.
Which Document Management apps are most actively developed?
Measured by commits in the last twelve months, the most active projects are Stirling-PDF (1,925 commits), Paperless-ngx (1,625 commits) and Docuseal (925 commits). Active development usually means faster bug fixes and security patches.