SHSelfHostIndex

Laverna vs Papra

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
LA Laverna Markdown note-taking app with client-side encryption VS PA Papra Minimalistic self-hosted document archiving platform
FeatureLavernaPapra
CategoryNotes & Knowledge BaseE-books & Media Library
LicenseMPL-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageJavaScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker
GitHub stars★ 9,182★ 5,160
First released20142024
ReplacesEvernote, SimplenoteEvernote, Dropbox

Why pick each one

Choose Laverna if…

  • Strong privacy focus
  • No backend required
Laverna details

Choose Papra if…

  • Clean modern UI
  • Easy deployment
Papra details

Frequently asked questions

Is Laverna or Papra better?

Neither is universally better. Laverna has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Laverna and Papra free and open-source?

Yes. Laverna is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Papra under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Laverna and Papra with Docker?

Laverna: check the project docs for container support. Papra: yes.

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