Compare / Paperless-ngx vs Docspell
Paperless-ngx vs Docspell
Pick Paperless-ngx if you want the well-known OCR document-management system. Pick Docspell if you want that AGPL organizer for scans and email.
Facts checked 20 Oct 2026. License, language, and GitHub activity come from the catalog or the project's own repo. "Not in the catalog row" means the public catalog dump does not store that number.
Paperless-ngx in the catalog Docspell in the catalogStart on Railway
How they compare
| Paperless-ngx | Docspell | |
|---|---|---|
| License | GNU General Public License v3.0 (catalog) source | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (catalog) source |
| Language | Python (catalog) | Elm (catalog) |
| GitHub activity | 46,640 stars in the catalog source | 2,338 stars in the catalog source |
| Self-host | Compose: consume, web, Redis, DB, tika/gotenberg as documented. | Document organizer for scans and email. Search and tags. |
| Best for | A paperless mailbox with OCR. | Scans plus email ingestion if that is the shape. |
Self-hosting and resource needs
Paperless-ngx is already compared with Papra — /compare/paperless-ngx-vs-papra. Docspell is eikek/docspell. Stirling PDF remains the Acrobat toolbox — /stacks/stirling-pdf. Do not invent OCR accuracy numbers.
FAQ
- Paperless-ngx or Papra?
- Papra is the smaller AGPL TypeScript archive — /compare/paperless-ngx-vs-papra.
- Is this Adobe Acrobat?
- No. Stirling PDF is /replace/acrobat. This pair is an archive.
- Are these free?
- Paperless-ngx is GPL-3.0. Docspell is AGPL-3.0. You pay disk.
- How do I deploy it?
- Follow each project's compose. Persist the consume/media volume.
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