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Paperless-ngx

✓ Verified FOSSGPL-3.0
Top open-source alternative to Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless

A community-supported supercharged document management system: scan, index and archive all your documents

Tech StackPython, Django, Celery, Tesseract OCR, Redis, PostgreSQL
Self-Host DifficultyMedium
License ModelGPL-3.0

Recommended VPS & Hardware Sizing

Estimated Hosting: $10 - $15/mo (e.g. Hetzner CPX21 or Linode)
Min RAM:2 GB
Rec RAM:4 GB
Compute:2 vCPU
Disk Space:25 GB SSD

Paperless-ngx vs Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless Comparison Matrix

Evaluation CriteriaPaperless-ngx (Open Source)Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless (Proprietary)
Data Privacy100% Stored locally on encrypted storageConfidential financial tax filings stored in cloud
Per-Page OCR FeeUnlimited OCR throughput with local CPU/GPUBilled per page or $20+/mo per seat
INTERACTIVE TCO MODELEstimated Rate: $25/user/mo

Financial Impact: Migrating from Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless to Self-Hosted Paperless-ngx

Detailed Stack Calculator →
5 Users (Early Startup)50 Users (Scaleup)200 Users (Enterprise Org)
Box DMS / Abbyy Paperless (Cloud SaaS)Per-Seat Tax
$7,500per year ($625/mo)
3-Year Spend:$22,500

* Excludes enterprise SSO add-ons & usage overages

Paperless-ngx (Self-Hosted)Zero Per-Seat Fee
$120per year ($10/mo Linux VPS)
3-Year Compute:$360

* Commodity Hetzner / DigitalOcean compute instance

Cumulative 3-Year ROI+$22,140Net savings across 36 months (98% reduction)
Annual Free Cash:+$7,380/yr
Need C-Level Buy-In? Generate an instant ROI proposal memo to present to your CTO or CFO.

Core Capabilities & Features

✓Automatic OCR text extraction from scanned PDFs and photos
✓Auto-tagging and correspondent classifier powered by ML
✓Network scanner intake folder (drop files to auto-ingest)
✓Full-text search highlighting exact OCR matches inside PDFs

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.

Paperless-ngxGPL-3.0

A community-supported supercharged document management system that transforms physical documents into searchable digital archives

Difficulty: Medium46,565 ⭐
Configure Parameters
docker-compose.paperless-ngx.yml
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.

README INTEGRATION // REPO EMBED

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SIMILAR REPOSITORIES // PEER COMPARISON

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