Stirling-PDF

✓ Verified FOSSGPL-3.0

Top open-source alternative to Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf

⭐ 94,070 Stars Official Website ↗

#1 PDF Application on GitHub that lets you edit PDFs on any device anywhere

Tech StackJava, Spring Boot, Vue.js, OCR Tesseract

Self-Host DifficultyEasy

License ModelGPL-3.0

GitHub RepositoryStirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF

Recommended VPS & Hardware Sizing

Estimated Hosting: $4 - $6/mo (e.g. Hetzner CX22 or DigitalOcean)

Min RAM:1 GB

Rec RAM:2 GB

Compute:1 vCPU

Disk Space:10 GB SSD

Stirling-PDF vs Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf Comparison Matrix

Evaluation Criteria	Stirling-PDF (Open Source)	Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf (Proprietary)
Document Confidentiality	Runs 100% offline inside private network	PDFs uploaded to third-party public web servers
License Cost	100% Free & Open Source	$239.88/user/year for Adobe Acrobat Pro
File Size Limits	Unrestricted gigabyte-scale PDF processing	100MB cloud upload caps
Batch Processing	Full REST API and multi-file batch execution	Manual 1-by-1 web conversion

INTERACTIVE TCO MODELEstimated Rate: $25/user/mo

Financial Impact: Migrating from Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf to Self-Hosted Stirling-PDF

Detailed Stack Calculator →

Active Team Members / Seats: 25 Users

5 Users (Early Startup)50 Users (Scaleup)200 Users (Enterprise Org)

Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf (Cloud SaaS)Per-Seat Tax

$7,500per year ($625/mo)

3-Year Spend:$22,500

* Excludes enterprise SSO add-ons & usage overages

Stirling-PDF (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.

HEAD-TO-HEAD BATTLES // SIDE-BY-SIDE AUDIT

Compare Stirling-PDF Head-to-Head

Custom Comparison Engine →

★ PRIMARY REPLACEMENTFOSS vs SaaS

Stirling-PDFvs

Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf

Comprehensive benchmark comparing Stirling-PDF against proprietary Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf licensing and features.

View Full Battle Report→

ProductivityPEER BENCHMARK

AppFlowyvs

AFFiNE

Flutter Native Desktop vs Collaborative Whiteboard Canvas

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ProductivityPEER BENCHMARK

AppFlowyvs

Notion

100% Sovereign Data Ownership vs Proprietary Cloud Workspace

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ProductivityPEER BENCHMARK

AFFiNEvs

Notion

Multimodal Infinite Canvas vs Closed-SaaS Relational Workspace

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ProductivityPEER BENCHMARK

Stirling-PDFvs

Paperless-ngx

Browser-Based PDF Utilities vs Automated Document Archival & OCR

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ProductivityPEER BENCHMARK

Outlinevs

Confluence

Modern Fast Markdown Knowledge Base vs Heavy Atlassian Wiki

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Core Capabilities & Features

✓Merge, split, rotate, and rearrange PDF pages

✓High-accuracy OCR text recognition in 20+ languages

✓Convert PDF to Word, HTML, Images, and Markdown

✓Redact sensitive corporate data and black out confidential text

✓Add digital signatures, stamps, and watermarks

✓Compress PDFs with custom DPI reduction sliders

Self-Host Stirling-PDF 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.

Select Open-Source Project:

Stirling-PDFGPL-3.0

Robust, locally hosted web application that allows you to perform all operations on PDF files

Difficulty: Easy94,070 ⭐

Configure Parameters

()

docker-compose.stirling-pdf.yml

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-stopped

Frequently Asked Questions: Self-Hosting Stirling-PDF

How do I self-host Stirling-PDF using Docker Compose?

You can deploy Stirling-PDF (Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF) 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 Stirling-PDF compare to Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf?

Stirling-PDF is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf built with Java, Spring Boot, Vue.js, OCR Tesseract. Unlike Adobe Acrobat Pro / Smallpdf ($19.99 - $29.99 / user / month), Stirling-PDF 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 Stirling-PDF?

For production self-hosting (Easy difficulty tier), we recommend at least 2 GB RAM (minimum 1 GB), 1 vCPU, and 10 GB SSD storage, which typically costs $4 - $6/mo (e.g. Hetzner CX22 or DigitalOcean).

Is Stirling-PDF free for commercial business use under the GPL-3.0 license?

Yes. Distributed under the GPL-3.0 license, Stirling-PDF can be self-hosted internally by businesses and engineering teams of any size without per-seat royalties.

README INTEGRATION // REPO EMBED

Embed Official Stirling-PDF Badge in GitHub README

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