PdfDing

What is PdfDing?

PdfDing is a self-hosted PDF manager, viewer, and editor written in Python (Django) with a Svelte frontend. It is designed to give individuals and small teams a private alternative to cloud PDF services: you run it yourself in Docker, Docker Compose, or Helm, and your documents live on your own infrastructure rather than on a vendor's servers. The name is a nod to linkding, the bookmark manager that inspired the project's tagging and sharing model.

Key features

• In-browser PDF reader that streams pages on demand, remembers the current position, and continues across devices.
• Library organisation via workspaces, collections, multi-level tags, starring, archiving, and progress bars per PDF.
• Editing — add text, highlights, drawings, and signatures; export highlights and comments to Markdown.
• Sharing — share single PDFs or whole collections via a link or QR code, with optional access control lists.
• Auth: local accounts, two-factor authentication (TOTP and WebAuthn), and OIDC single sign-on for organisations.
• Clean dark UI with an inverted colour mode for night reading and keyboard-friendly bulk actions.
• Private by design: no telemetry, no third-party data sharing, no analytics.

Comparison to paid PDF software

PdfDing targets users who currently pay for Adobe Acrobat's cloud tier, Foxit PDF Editor's sharing features, or services like DocSend for distribution and analytics. Because it is self-hosted, the only cost is the server you already operate, and there are no per-user licence fees. The reader, editor, and sharing functionality are deliberately narrower than a desktop PDF editor such as Adobe Acrobat Pro, but they cover the day-to-day workflow of someone reading, highlighting, and signing PDFs across multiple devices, with the same level of polish you would expect from a SaaS PDF tool.