Paperless-ngx vs Syncthing

Comparing two open source alternatives to Google Drive and Dropbox. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

Paperless-ngx

GPL-3.0

Self-hosted document management system with OCR, full-text search, and automatic tagging for your paper documents.

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Syncthing

MPL-2.0

Continuous file synchronization program that syncs files directly between your devices — no cloud required.

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Side-by-side comparison

	Paperless-ngx	Syncthing
License	GPL-3.0	MPL-2.0
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	47,858	90,225
Forks	3,363	5,582
Open Issues	7	399
Last Commit	Nov 8, 2026	Nov 5, 2026
First Released	Feb 12, 2022	Nov 26, 2013
Categories	Productivity & Utilities	Cloud Storage
Tags	#pdf #file storage #archive	#cloud storage #file storage #privacy

GitHub stars over time

Paperless-ngx

Syncthing90,225

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