Papra is an open-source, self-hosted document archiving platform. See features, pricing tiers, pros and cons, and alternatives like Paperless-ngx.
Papra is an open-source document archiving and management platform built for people who want to organize scanned documents, PDFs, receipts and images without handing their data to a closed SaaS vendor. It was started in January 2025 by independent developer Corentin Thomasset as a side project, and has since grown into a full product with thousands of GitHub stars, released entirely under the AGPL-3.0 license.
The platform ships as a lightweight Docker image (under 200MB), so it can run on a home server, NAS, or inexpensive VPS with minimal resources. For people who don't want to manage their own infrastructure, Papra also offers an optional managed cloud service hosted in Europe under GDPR-compliant infrastructure.
Documents in Papra are organized using organizations (useful for teams, households or companies), free-form tags, and automated tagging rules that categorize incoming files based on custom conditions. Content extraction automatically pulls text out of scanned images and PDFs, so every archived document becomes searchable rather than just stored.
An email-ingestion address lets users forward emails and attachments directly into their archive without manual uploads, while an API, SDK and webhook system make it possible to build custom integrations or automate document intake from other tools.
Self-hosting Papra is free forever since the code is fully open source; users only pay for their own server or storage costs. For those who prefer not to self-host, Papra's managed cloud plans start with a Free tier (512MB storage, 3 members) and scale up through Plus ($9/month, or $7.50/month billed annually) and Pro ($30/month, or $25/month billed annually) tiers based on storage, member seats and upload limits.
A custom Enterprise tier is available for organizations with larger or more specific requirements, with pricing available on request. Annual billing on cloud plans saves roughly 20% compared to paying monthly.
Yes, self-hosting Papra is free forever since it is open source; a paid managed cloud service is also available starting at $9/month.
Yes, Papra is released under the AGPL-3.0 license and hosted publicly on GitHub.
Independent developer Corentin Thomasset, who built and bootstrapped it without venture funding.
Yes, via a lightweight Docker image on your own server or NAS.
Yes, it automatically extracts text from images and scanned documents so they become searchable.
Both are open-source, self-hosted document archivers; Papra adds tagging rules, email ingestion, an optional managed cloud plan, and an API/SDK out of the box.
In Europe, on GDPR-compliant infrastructure.
Yes, along with an SDK and webhooks for custom integrations.