Robust, locally hosted web application that allows you to perform all operations on PDF files
A community-supported supercharged document management system: scan, index and archive all your documents
Recommended VPS & Hardware Sizing
Estimated Hosting: $10 - $15/mo (e.g. Hetzner CPX21 or Linode)Paperless-ngx vs Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless Comparison Matrix
| Evaluation Criteria | Paperless-ngx (Open Source) | Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless (Proprietary) |
|---|---|---|
| Data Privacy | 100% Stored locally on encrypted storage | Confidential financial tax filings stored in cloud |
| Per-Page OCR Fee | Unlimited OCR throughput with local CPU/GPU | Billed per page or $20+/mo per seat |
Financial Impact: Migrating from Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless to Self-Hosted Paperless-ngx
* Excludes enterprise SSO add-ons & usage overages
* Commodity Hetzner / DigitalOcean compute instance
Compare Paperless-ngx Head-to-Head
Comprehensive benchmark comparing Paperless-ngx against proprietary Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless licensing and features.
Flutter Native Desktop vs Collaborative Whiteboard Canvas
100% Sovereign Data Ownership vs Proprietary Cloud Workspace
Multimodal Infinite Canvas vs Closed-SaaS Relational Workspace
Browser-Based PDF Utilities vs Automated Document Archival & OCR
Modern Fast Markdown Knowledge Base vs Heavy Atlassian Wiki
Core Capabilities & Features
Self-Host Paperless-ngx with Docker Compose
Tweak configuration ports, secrets, and volumes live. Download or copy your ready-to-run container file:
1-Click Docker Compose Generator
Generate production-ready container definitions with customizable ports and volumes.
A community-supported supercharged document management system that transforms physical documents into searchable digital archives
version: "3.4"
services:
broker:
image: docker.io/library/redis:7
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
- redisdata:/data
webserver:
image: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest
restart: unless-stopped
depends_on:
- broker
ports:
- "${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:Frequently Asked Questions: Self-Hosting Paperless-ngx
How do I self-host Paperless-ngx using Docker Compose?
You can deploy Paperless-ngx (paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx) on any Linux server by copying the docker-compose.yml template on this page, configuring your desired host port and persistent volume directory, and running 'docker compose up -d'.
How does Paperless-ngx compare to Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless?
Paperless-ngx is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless built with Python, Django, Celery, Tesseract OCR, Redis, PostgreSQL. Unlike Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless ($15 - $35 / user / month), Paperless-ngx has zero per-user licensing fees and keeps 100% of your data on your own infrastructure.
What are the minimum VPS RAM and CPU requirements for Paperless-ngx?
For production self-hosting (Medium difficulty tier), we recommend at least 4 GB RAM (minimum 2 GB), 2 vCPU, and 25 GB SSD storage, which typically costs $10 - $15/mo (e.g. Hetzner CPX21 or Linode).
Is Paperless-ngx free for commercial business use under the GPL-3.0 license?
Yes. Distributed under the GPL-3.0 license, Paperless-ngx can be self-hosted internally by businesses and engineering teams of any size without per-seat royalties.
Embed Official Paperless-ngx Badge in GitHub README
Served locally from OSSMatrix with Cloudflare global edge caching. Real-time verified alternative status, zero third-party dependencies, sub-5ms load time.
[](https://ossmatrix.com/project/paperless-ngx)<a href="https://ossmatrix.com/project/paperless-ngx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://ossmatrix.com/api/badge/paperless-ngx" alt="Paperless-ngx on OSSMatrix" /></a>Compare Paperless-ngx with Other Self-Hosted Alternatives
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