Mayan EDMS vs Open Semantic Search
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
VS
Open Semantic Search
Search engine and text mining for document archives
| Feature | Mayan EDMS | Open Semantic Search |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Document Management | Document Management |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,100 | ★ 1,213 |
| First released | 2011 | 2014 |
| Replaces | DocuWare, M-Files | DocuWare, M-Files |
What are Mayan EDMS and Open Semantic Search?
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
Open Semantic Search
Open Semantic Search is an open-source search engine and integrated text analytics suite for searching, monitoring, and analyzing large collections of documents. It supports OCR and entity extraction.
- Full-text and faceted search
- OCR of scanned documents
- Named entity extraction
- Document tagging
Mayan EDMS vs Open Semantic Search: key differences
Mayan EDMS is written in Python, while Open Semantic Search is built with Shell. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Mayan EDMS versus GPL-3.0 for Open Semantic Search. Mayan EDMS is the lighter option, starting around 2,048 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Open Semantic Search. Mayan EDMS is the more established project (first released 2011), while Open Semantic Search arrived in 2014.
Why pick each one
Choose Mayan EDMS if…
- Powerful workflow engine
- Enterprise-grade features
Watch out for
- Complex to configure
- Resource intensive
Choose Open Semantic Search if…
- Powerful analytics on archives
- Handles many file formats
Watch out for
- Heavy resource requirements
- Complex to set up
Frequently asked questions
Is Mayan EDMS or Open Semantic Search better?
Neither is universally better. Open Semantic Search has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Mayan EDMS and Open Semantic Search free and open-source?
Yes. Mayan EDMS is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Open Semantic Search under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mayan EDMS and Open Semantic Search with Docker?
Mayan EDMS: yes. Open Semantic Search: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Mayan EDMS or Open Semantic Search?
Mayan EDMS has the smaller minimum footprint at 2,048 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Open Semantic Search. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.