Ladder vs Papra
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?
Ladder
Bypass paywalls as 12ft.io does
VS
Papra
Minimalistic self-hosted document archiving platform
| Feature | Ladder | Papra |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-books & Media Library | E-books & Media Library |
| License | GPL-3.0-only | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 20 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,804 | ★ 5,160 |
| First released | 2023 | 2024 |
| Replaces | 12ft, 13ft | Evernote, Dropbox |
Why pick each one
Choose Ladder if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 8.8k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Ladder or Papra better?
Neither is universally better. Ladder has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Ladder and Papra free and open-source?
Yes. Ladder is licensed under GPL-3.0-only and Papra under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ladder and Papra with Docker?
Ladder: check the project docs for container support. Papra: yes.