Aleph vs Mayan EDMS
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted document management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Mayan EDMS
Free electronic document management with workflows
| Feature | Aleph | Mayan EDMS |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Document Management | Document Management |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,437 | ★ 1,100 |
| First released | 2016 | 2011 |
| Replaces | DocuWare, Relativity | DocuWare, M-Files |
What are Aleph and Mayan EDMS?
Aleph
Aleph is an open-source tool for indexing, searching, and cross-referencing large collections of documents and structured data, built for investigative journalism. It performs OCR, entity extraction, and link analysis across archives.
- OCR and text extraction
- Entity cross-referencing
- Full-text document search
- Investigative archives
Mayan EDMS
Mayan EDMS is an open-source electronic document management system for storing, indexing, and organizing documents with OCR. It includes workflows, document versioning, and granular permissions.
- OCR and full-text search
- Document workflows
- Versioning and history
- Granular access control
Aleph vs Mayan EDMS: key differences
Aleph is written in JavaScript, while Mayan EDMS is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Aleph versus Apache-2.0 for Mayan EDMS. Mayan EDMS is the lighter option, starting around 2,048 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Aleph. Mayan EDMS is the more established project (first released 2011), while Aleph arrived in 2016. Aleph has the considerably larger community, at 2,437 GitHub stars versus 1,100.
Why pick each one
Choose Aleph if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Choose Mayan EDMS if…
- Powerful workflow engine
- Enterprise-grade features
Watch out for
- Complex to configure
- Resource intensive
Frequently asked questions
Is Aleph or Mayan EDMS better?
Neither is universally better. Aleph has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Aleph and Mayan EDMS free and open-source?
Yes. Aleph is licensed under MIT and Mayan EDMS under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Aleph and Mayan EDMS with Docker?
Aleph: yes. Mayan EDMS: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Aleph or Mayan EDMS?
Mayan EDMS has the smaller minimum footprint at 2,048 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Aleph. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.