SHSelfHostIndex

OCRmyPDF vs PDF Arranger

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?
OC OCRmyPDF Add a searchable OCR text layer to scanned PDFs VS PD PDF Arranger Desktop tool to merge, split, and rearrange PDF pages
FeatureOCRmyPDFPDF Arranger
CategoryDocument ManagementE-books & Media Library
LicenseMPL-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguagePythonPython
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, bare-metalbare-metal, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 34,391★ 5,760
First released20152019
ReplacesAdobe AcrobatAdobe Acrobat, PDFsam

Why pick each one

Choose OCRmyPDF if…

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

Choose PDF Arranger if…

  • Simple and reliable
  • Cross-platform
PDF Arranger details

Frequently asked questions

Is OCRmyPDF or PDF Arranger better?

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

Are OCRmyPDF and PDF Arranger free and open-source?

Yes. OCRmyPDF is licensed under MPL-2.0 and PDF Arranger under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run OCRmyPDF and PDF Arranger with Docker?

OCRmyPDF: yes. PDF Arranger: check the project docs for container support.

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