Docspell, Mayan EDMS, and Teedy are all free, open-source, self-hosted document management systems with OCR and REST APIs, but they scale very differently.…
Best for: Privacy-conscious individuals and families who want machine-learning-assisted auto-tagging of scanned paperwork shared across a household or small group
freemium · From Free (self-hosted); cloud plans from about EUR 19/user/month
Best for: Users wanting the lightest-weight self-hosted document management system, with an optional hosted cloud alternative if they later want to stop self-hosting
At a Glance
Docspell
Mayan EDMS
Teedy
Primary category
Documents & E-signature
Documents & E-signature
Documents & E-signature
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Free / Open Source
Open Source
freemium
Starting price
Free
Free
Free (self-hosted); cloud plans from about EUR 19/user/month
Free plan
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free trial
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Platforms
Android
Not documented
Android
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Yes
Yes
Yes
Standout Differences
Mayan EDMS is built for enterprise scale
Mayan EDMS is designed to scale from small deployments to enterprise repositories handling hundreds of millions of documents, with distributed OCR processing and a full workflow automation engine.
Mayan EDMS
Docspell learns your filing habits
Docspell uses OCR plus natural language processing to suggest correspondents, tags, and dates, improving its suggestions over time as users confirm or correct them, and organizes documents around shared 'collectives' for households or small teams.
Docspell
Teedy runs almost anywhere
Teedy has been reported to scale to roughly one million documents and can be deployed on hardware ranging from a Raspberry Pi to Kubernetes clusters, with an optional hosted cloud version at teedy.io for teams that would rather not self-host.
Teedy
All three are fully free with no feature paywalls
Docspell, Mayan EDMS, and Teedy each offer their complete self-hosted feature set for free, funded by community or volunteer development rather than gated tiers.
Docspell, Mayan EDMS, Teedy
Licenses differ in ways that matter for redistribution
Docspell uses AGPLv3, Mayan EDMS uses the more permissive Apache 2.0, and Teedy uses GPL, which can matter for organizations planning to modify or redistribute the software.
Docspell, Mayan EDMS, Teedy
Feature-by-Feature
Core Document Management
Feature
Docspell
Mayan EDMS
Teedy
Free, open-source, self-hosted
Available
Available
Available
OCR text extraction
Available
Available
Available
Full-text search
Available
Available
Available
REST/HTTP API
Available
Not documented
Available
Organization and Automation
Feature
Docspell
Mayan EDMS
Teedy
Workflow automation engine
Not documented
Available
Limited
Machine-learning-assisted auto-tagging
Available
Not documented
Not documented
Deployment and Access
Feature
Docspell
Mayan EDMS
Teedy
Native mobile app
Available
Not documented
Available
Optional managed/hosted cloud version
Not documented
Not documented
Available
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Teedy Cloud — From about EUR 19/user/month monthly
Pros & Cons
Docspell
Pros
Completely free and open source under the AGPLv3 license with no feature limits or paywalls
Machine-learning-assisted tagging and metadata extraction reduce manual filing effort over time
Multi-user 'collective' model is well suited to families or small groups sharing one document pool
Full REST API, Android app, and CLI make it easy to automate and integrate into existing self-hosted setups
Cons
Requires self-hosting expertise; there is no official managed cloud version from the project
Smaller community and ecosystem than the more widely adopted Paperless-ngx
OCR and NLP-based suggestions require correction and training over time to reach high accuracy
No corporate support contract or SLA is available since it is a volunteer-maintained project
Mayan EDMS
Pros
Completely free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license
Enterprise-scale architecture capable of handling hundreds of millions of documents
Built-in multi-language OCR with distributed processing for large repositories
Flexible metadata and cabinet organization instead of rigid folder hierarchies
Mature project with over a decade of continuous development and a large contributor base
Cons
Requires self-hosting and Django/Docker familiarity to deploy and maintain
No official managed cloud/SaaS offering from the core project
User interface is less polished than commercial DMS platforms like M-Files or DocuWare
Documentation and support rely heavily on community forums outside of paid consulting
Initial setup and configuration can be complex for non-technical teams
Teedy
Pros
Free and open source under GPL with no feature limitations on the self-hosted version
Includes enterprise-style features like OCR and encryption typically found only in paid document management systems
Lightweight enough to run on modest hardware such as a Raspberry Pi, while also scaling to Kubernetes
Docker-first deployment makes self-hosting straightforward
Optional hosted cloud version available for teams that do not want to manage infrastructure
Cons
Self-hosting requires basic server administration skills to deploy, secure, and maintain
Smaller ecosystem and community compared to larger commercial document management platforms
Default embedded H2 database is best suited for smaller deployments; PostgreSQL is recommended for scale
Mobile experience is limited to an Android client, with no native iOS app confirmed
Cloud version pricing and feature parity with self-hosted may vary and require checking current plans
Use Cases
Choose Docspell: Privacy-conscious individuals and families who want machine-learning-assisted auto-tagging of scanned paperwork shared across a household or small group
Choose Mayan EDMS: Organizations needing enterprise-scale document management with workflow automation, versioning, and compliance-oriented features
Choose Teedy: Users wanting the lightest-weight self-hosted document management system, with an optional hosted cloud alternative if they later want to stop self-hosting
Docspell
Household Paperwork Organization — Families digitize receipts, invoices, contracts, and tax documents into a shared, searchable archive that every household member can access under their own account.
Privacy-Focused Personal Archiving — Privacy-conscious individuals scan and organize personal documents without uploading sensitive files to a third-party SaaS service.
Small Team Document Sharing — Small companies or groups use a shared collective to manage business documents such as invoices and contracts across a small team.
Mayan EDMS
Government document digitization — Public-sector agencies digitize and manage permit, regulatory and case files with strict audit requirements.
Regulated document retention — Legal, healthcare and financial organizations need searchable, versioned document storage with electronic signature verification.
Enterprise-scale archive replacement — Organizations replacing paper archives or legacy DMS systems need a scalable, self-hosted, cost-free platform.
Teedy
Small business document archiving — Small teams self-host Teedy to digitize, OCR, and organize business documents like invoices and contracts.
Personal document management — Individuals self-host Teedy on a home server or Raspberry Pi to organize personal records with search and encryption.
Team knowledge and file repository — Teams use Teedy's permissions, tagging, and workflow features to manage shared documents and approvals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are all three of these document management systems really free?
Yes. Docspell (AGPLv3), Mayan EDMS (Apache 2.0), and Teedy (GPL, self-hosted edition) are all fully open source with no feature paywalls on the self-hosted version; the only real cost is the server and storage you provide.
Which one scales best for large enterprise document volumes?
Mayan EDMS, which is explicitly designed to handle repositories of hundreds of millions of documents and supports distributing OCR processing across multiple worker nodes.
Which tool is easiest to run on lightweight hardware like a Raspberry Pi?
Teedy, which has been reported to run on hardware ranging from a Raspberry Pi up to Kubernetes clusters, using an embedded H2 database for small deployments.
Do any of these offer a managed cloud or hosted option if I don't want to self-host?
Teedy is the only one of the three with an official hosted cloud version, at teedy.io, priced from about EUR 19 per user per month. Docspell and Mayan EDMS do not document an official managed cloud offering.
Which has the strongest workflow automation for approvals?
Mayan EDMS, which includes a dedicated workflow engine that tracks document state changes and can trigger automated actions as documents move through a business process.
What license governs each project, and does that matter for my use case?
Docspell uses AGPLv3, Mayan EDMS uses Apache 2.0, and Teedy's self-hosted edition uses GPL. This mainly matters if you plan to modify the source and redistribute a derivative product, since the licenses impose different obligations.