SHSelfHostIndex

13ft vs Paperless-ngx

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-books & media library options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
13 13ft Bypass paywall by acting as GoogleBot VS PA Paperless-ngx Document management for scanning, indexing and archiving
Feature13ftPaperless-ngx
CategoryE-books & Media LibraryE-books & Media Library
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonPython
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM50 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 4,250★ 44,077
First released20232022
Replaces12ftEvernote, DEVONthink

Why pick each one

Choose 13ft if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (4.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Python
13ft details

Choose Paperless-ngx if…

  • Excellent for paperless offices
  • Very active community
Paperless-ngx details

Frequently asked questions

Is 13ft or Paperless-ngx better?

Neither is universally better. Paperless-ngx has the larger community, while 13ft is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are 13ft and Paperless-ngx free and open-source?

Yes. 13ft is licensed under MIT and Paperless-ngx under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run 13ft and Paperless-ngx with Docker?

13ft: check the project docs for container support. Paperless-ngx: yes.

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