SHSelfHostIndex

Aleph vs OCRmyPDF

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted document management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
AL Aleph Search and document management for investigative work VS OC OCRmyPDF Add a searchable OCR text layer to scanned PDFs
FeatureAlephOCRmyPDF
CategoryDocument ManagementDocument Management
LicenseMITMPL-2.0
LanguageJavaScriptPython
Setup difficultyHardEasy
Min. RAM4,096 MB512 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, binary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 2,412★ 34,391
First released20162015
ReplacesDocuWare, RelativityAdobe Acrobat

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
Aleph details

Choose OCRmyPDF if…

  • Excellent OCR results
  • Composes well with other tools
OCRmyPDF details

Frequently asked questions

Is Aleph or OCRmyPDF better?

OCRmyPDF is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Aleph if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Aleph and OCRmyPDF free and open-source?

Yes. Aleph is licensed under MIT and OCRmyPDF under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Aleph and OCRmyPDF with Docker?

Aleph: yes. OCRmyPDF: yes.

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