Comprehensive side-by-side technical comparison between Paperless-ngx and Stirling-PDF.
The Quick Verdict: Which One Should You Choose?
Choose Paperless-ngx for indexing incoming paper bills, contracts, and receipts with automatic OCR, tagging, and full-text search.
Choose Stirling-PDF for ad-hoc PDF splitting, merging, watermarking, password removal, and page reordering directly in the browser.
Technical Specification & Architecture Matrix
| Feature / Metric | Paperless-ngx | Stirling-PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Software Category | productivity | productivity |
| Deployment Model | Self-Hosted / Private Cloud | Self-Hosted / Private Cloud |
| Licensing & IP Rights | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Pricing & Seat Model | $0 / Unlimited Users (FOSS) | $0 / Unlimited Users (FOSS) |
| GitHub Community Stars | ★ 46,565 | ★ 94,070 |
| Primary Tech Stack | Python, Django, Celery, Tesseract OCR, Redis, PostgreSQL | Java, Spring Boot, Vue.js, OCR Tesseract |
| Self-Hosting Difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Hardware & RAM Footprint | 2 GB - 4 GB RAM (Hetzner CPX21 / $10/mo) | 1 GB - 2 GB RAM (Hetzner CX22 / $4/mo) |
| Detailed Inspect Page | Inspect Paperless-ngx Stack → | Inspect Stirling-PDF Stack → |
Key Advantages & Trade-offs
Paperless-ngx Analysis
- ✓100% data sovereignty & on-premises privacy with no third-party data mining.
- ✓Zero per-seat licensing fees; scale unlimited team members on private VPS.
- ✓Full inspection and custom modification of source code (GPL-3.0 license).
- ✗Requires basic Linux or Docker server administration and automated backup scheduling.
- ✗Community support via GitHub issues and Discord rather than formal enterprise SLA.
Stirling-PDF Analysis
- ✓100% data sovereignty & on-premises privacy with no third-party data mining.
- ✓Zero per-seat licensing fees; scale unlimited team members on private VPS.
- ✓Full inspection and custom modification of source code (GPL-3.0 license).
- ✗Requires basic Linux or Docker server administration and automated backup scheduling.
- ✗Community support via GitHub issues and Discord rather than formal enterprise SLA.
Production Docker Compose Configurations
version: "3.4"
services:
broker:
image: docker.io/library/redis:7
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
- redisdata:/data
webserver:
image: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest
restart: unless-stopped
depends_on:
- broker
ports:
- "${SERVER_PORT:-8000}:8000"
volumes:
- data:/usr/src/paperless/data
- media:/usr/src/paperless/media
- ./export:/usr/src/paperless/export
- ./consume:/usr/src/paperless/consume
environment:
PAPERLESS_REDIS: redis://broker:6379
PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY:-change_me_to_random_secret}
PAPERLESS_URL: http://localhost:${SERVER_PORT:-8000}
PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE: ${OCR_LANG:-eng+chi_sim}
PAPERLESS_TIME_ZONE: UTC
volumes:
data:
media:
redisdata:version: '3.8'
services:
stirling-pdf:
image: frooodle/s-pdf:latest
container_name: stirling-pdf
ports:
- "${SERVER_PORT:-8080}:8080"
volumes:
- ./trainingData:/usr/share/tessdata
- ./extraConfigs:/configs
- ./customFiles:/customFiles/
- ./logs:/logs/
environment:
- DOCKER_ENABLE_SECURITY=${ENABLE_SECURITY:-false}
- INSTALL_BOOK_AND_ADVANCED_HTML_OPS=true
- LANGS=en_GB,zh_CN,de_DE,es_ES,fr_FR
restart: unless-stoppedRelated Head-to-Head Software Battles
Paperless-ngx vs Stirling-PDF: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary difference between Paperless-ngx and Stirling-PDF?
Paperless-ngx is a self-hosted open-source software (GPL-3.0 licensed) focused on A community-supported supercharged document management system that transforms physical documents into searchable digital archives. In contrast, Stirling-PDF is a self-hosted open-source solution (GPL-3.0 licensed) focused on Robust, locally hosted web application that allows you to perform all operations on PDF files.
How much money can a 25-person team save by choosing Paperless-ngx?
Commercial per-seat SaaS tools typically charge $10–$40/user/month ($3,000–$12,000/year for 25 seats). Self-hosting open-source software on a private VPS (typically $10–$25/month on Hetzner or DigitalOcean) reduces recurring software expenses by up to 95%.
What are the production server hardware requirements for self-hosting?
For Paperless-ngx, recommended baseline memory is 2 GB - 4 GB RAM (Hetzner CPX21 / $10/mo). For Stirling-PDF, recommended memory is 1 GB - 2 GB RAM (Hetzner CX22 / $4/mo). Both can be provisioned using modern Docker Compose configurations.
Is data export and migration supported between Paperless-ngx and Stirling-PDF?
Yes. Open-source solutions prioritize data portability with standard SQL database dumps, JSON/CSV exports, or native markdown files, ensuring zero vendor lock-in.