Docspell and Teedy are lightweight, developer-friendly self-hosted document organizers best suited to individuals and small teams, while OpenKM is a more…
freemium · From Free (self-hosted); cloud plans from about EUR 19/user/month
Best for: Small teams wanting a lightweight self-hosted document management system with an optional hosted cloud alternative
At a Glance
Docspell
OpenKM
Teedy
Primary category
Documents & E-signature
Documents & E-signature
Documents & E-signature
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Free / Open Source
Freemium
freemium
Starting price
Free
Free (Community Edition); Professional and Cloud plans are custom-quoted, with third-party estimates starting around $30/user/month
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
Web
Android
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Yes
Yes
Yes
Standout Differences
OpenKM adds formal records management
OpenKM includes purpose-built records management features for regulatory and compliance use cases, plus a jBPM-based workflow and business process automation engine, capabilities not documented for Docspell or Teedy.
OpenKM
Docspell learns your filing habits
Docspell uses OCR plus natural language processing to suggest correspondents, tags, and dates, and organizes documents around shared 'collectives' for households or small teams.
Docspell
Teedy runs almost anywhere
Teedy can be deployed on hardware from a Raspberry Pi to Kubernetes clusters and offers an optional hosted cloud version at teedy.io for teams that would rather not self-host.
Teedy
OpenKM is the only vendor-backed option
OpenKM is developed by a Spanish software company with regional offices across multiple countries, offering paid Professional and Cloud editions with vendor support, unlike the purely community-maintained Docspell and Teedy open-source editions.
OpenKM
All three provide a genuinely free, self-hostable core
Docspell, OpenKM's Community Edition, and Teedy's self-hosted edition are all free to deploy with no per-user licensing fee for their open-source tier.
Docspell, OpenKM, Teedy
Feature-by-Feature
Core Document Management
Feature
Docspell
OpenKM
Teedy
Free self-hosted/open-source tier
Available
Available
Available
OCR text extraction
Available
Available
Available
Full-text search
Available
Available
Available
REST API
Available
Available
Available
Enterprise and Compliance
Feature
Docspell
OpenKM
Teedy
Formal records management (retention/regulatory)
Not documented
Available
Not documented
Workflow automation engine
Not documented
Available
Limited
Paid vendor support option
Not documented
Available
Available
Access
Feature
Docspell
OpenKM
Teedy
Native mobile app
Available
Available
Available
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Docspell
Open Source (Self-Hosted) — Free n/a
OpenKM
Community Edition — Free N/A
Professional Edition — Custom (estimated from around $30/user/month) Monthly or annual
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
OpenKM
Pros
Free, open-source Community Edition available for self-hosting
Strong workflow and business process automation via jBPM
Purpose-built records management features for compliance-heavy industries
Scales from small teams to large enterprise deployments
International presence with localized support in multiple regions
Cons
Professional and Cloud pricing is not published and requires a sales quote
Community Edition has no official vendor support, only forums
Admin interface feels dated compared to newer cloud-native DMS tools
Workflow configuration has a learning curve for non-technical users
Smaller third-party app marketplace than mainstream competitors like Box
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 small groups who want machine-learning-assisted auto-tagging of scanned paperwork
Choose OpenKM: Organizations needing enterprise records management, regulatory compliance, and workflow automation, with the option of paid vendor support
Choose Teedy: Small teams wanting a lightweight self-hosted document management system with an optional hosted cloud alternative
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.
OpenKM
Legal and compliance document management — Law firms and compliance teams use OpenKM's records management and audit features to manage sensitive documents.
Enterprise records management — Large organizations use OpenKM to enforce retention schedules and regulatory document lifecycles across departments.
Educational institution document control — Universities and schools use OpenKM to manage administrative records, student files, and institutional documents.
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
What is the main difference between OpenKM and the other two tools?
OpenKM is developed and supported by a commercial company with paid Professional and Cloud editions, formal records management, and jBPM-based workflow automation, while Docspell and Teedy are purely community-maintained open-source projects without a company or paid support option behind their self-hosted editions.
Is OpenKM's Community Edition really free?
Yes, OpenKM's Community Edition is released under an open-source license and is free to self-host, though it comes with community forum support only, unlike the paid Professional and Cloud editions, which add vendor support and pricing starting around $30 per user per month by third-party estimates.
Which of these has formal records management for regulatory compliance?
OpenKM, which includes dedicated records management (RM) features for retention schedules and regulatory compliance, a capability not documented for Docspell or Teedy.
Can I get paid vendor support for any of these?
OpenKM offers paid Professional and Cloud editions with vendor support, and Teedy offers an optional hosted Teedy Cloud version from Sismics. Docspell has no official commercial support option since it is maintained by an individual developer and community contributors.
Which is lightest-weight for a small personal archive?
Teedy and Docspell are both aimed at individuals and small groups and are lighter-weight than OpenKM's enterprise-oriented feature set; Teedy in particular has been reported to run on hardware as small as a Raspberry Pi.
Do all three expose a REST API for integrations?
Yes, Docspell, OpenKM, and Teedy each document a REST API that can be used to automate or integrate document workflows with other systems.