Docling Serve vs MinerU
Short answer
Docling Serve: Docling document conversion (PDF, Office, images to Markdown/JSON) as a self-hosted API with a demo UI. MinerU: Document parser that converts PDFs, scans and Office files into clean Markdown or JSON for LLMs and RAG. Both are in our Document processing category.
Choose Docling Serve if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Custom / conditional).
Choose MinerU if you want: larger community (82.7k vs 1.9k GitHub stars).
Docling Serve publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Last updated · computed from each project's official docs and live GitHub data · sources
Docling Serve vs MinerU side by side
| Docling Serve | MinerU | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Document processing | Document processing |
| What it is | Docling document conversion (PDF, Office, images to Markdown/JSON) as a self-hosted API with a demo UI. | Document parser that converts PDFs, scans and Office files into clean Markdown or JSON for LLMs and RAG. |
| License | MIT | MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) |
| License type | Permissive | Custom / conditional |
| License conditions | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. | Commercial use is allowed without a separate license, unless you and your affiliates exceed 100 million monthly active users or USD 20 million monthly revenue. If you offer an online service to third parties based on MinerU, you must state prominently that it uses MinerU. |
| Status | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 1.9k | 82.7k |
| Last commit | Oct 27, 2026 | Oct 11, 2026 |
| Latest release | v1.38.2 | mineru-4.0.12-released |
| Minimum hardware | Not published | 2 GB RAM |
| Recommended hardware | Not published | Not published |
| RAM measured by us | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| GPU | CPU-only image (docling-serve-cpu) is published; CUDA 12.8 and 13.0 images are available for NVIDIA GPUs, and an AMD ROCm image can be built locally. DOCLING_DEVICE picks cpu, cuda or mps, otherwise the best device is chosen. | Optional. The basic tier runs ONNX models on CPU; the standard/advanced tiers work on CPU with 8 GB RAM (Vulkan recommended). PyTorch and vLLM/lmdeploy engines need a GPU with 8 GB+ VRAM and 16 GB RAM. The official Docker image targets NVIDIA GPUs only. |
| Est. server cost | Not estimated | from €11.99/mo |
| Deploy method | Container (Podman or Docker) | Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs |
| Known gotchas | 4 listed | 4 listed |
| Telemetry | Not documented | On by default |
| Calls home by default | Not documented | Not documented |
| SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP) | Not documented | Not documented |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | Not documented |
| Details | Full Docling Serve guide → | Full MinerU guide → |
Key differences
- License: Docling Serve: MIT (Permissive). MinerU: MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) (Custom / conditional).
- Official hardware: Docling Serve: not published. MinerU: minimum 2 GB RAM.
- Est. server cost: Docling Serve: not estimated (no official RAM figure). MinerU: from €11.99/mo.
- Deploy: Docling Serve: Container (Podman or Docker) · Container (Podman or Docker). MinerU: Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs · multi-container stack.
- GitHub stars: Docling Serve: 1.9k. MinerU: 82.7k.
- Last commit: Docling Serve: Oct 27, 2026. MinerU: Oct 11, 2026.
- Latest release: Docling Serve: v1.38.2 (Oct 27, 2026). MinerU: mineru-4.0.12-released (Oct 11, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Document processing; GPU: optional / see notes; Status: Active.
Docling Serve vs MinerU: FAQ
Docling Serve or MinerU: which should a small business choose?
Choose Docling Serve if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Custom / conditional). Choose MinerU if you want: larger community (82.7k vs 1.9k GitHub stars). Docling Serve publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, Docling Serve or MinerU?
Docling Serve: not estimated (no official RAM figure). MinerU: from €11.99/mo. Our estimate is the cheapest Hetzner Cloud plan that meets each project's official RAM and vCPU figure; it covers the server only.
How much hardware do Docling Serve and MinerU need?
Docling Serve: not published. MinerU: minimum 2 GB RAM.
What is the license difference between Docling Serve and MinerU?
Docling Serve: MIT (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. MinerU: MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) (Custom / conditional). Commercial use is allowed without a separate license, unless you and your affiliates exceed 100 million monthly active users or USD 20 million monthly revenue. If you offer an online service to third parties based on MinerU, you must state prominently that it uses MinerU. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is Docling Serve or MinerU more actively maintained?
Docling Serve: Active, last commit Oct 27, 2026. MinerU: Active, last commit Oct 11, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 28, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, Docling Serve or MinerU?
Docling Serve installs via Container (Podman or Docker) (Container (Podman or Docker)); MinerU via Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs (multi-container stack). Docling Serve lists 4 known gotchas and MinerU lists 4; see each app page.
Related
- Docling Serve self-hosting guide · MinerU self-hosting guide
- All Docling Serve alternatives, ranked
- All MinerU alternatives, ranked
- Docling Serve vs PaddleOCR
- Docling Serve vs Paperless-AI
- Docling Serve vs paperless-gpt
- Docling Serve vs Unstract
- MinerU vs PaddleOCR
- MinerU vs Paperless-AI
- MinerU vs paperless-gpt
- MinerU vs Unstract
- Add a third app in the interactive comparison
Sources
- Docling Serve GitHub repository: github.com/docling-project/docling-serve
- Docling Serve documentation: github.com/docling-project/docling-serve/blob/main/docs/README.md
- Docling Serve license: github.com/docling-project/docling-serve/blob/main/LICENSE
- Docling Serve hardware requirements: github.com/docling-project/docling-serve#container-images
- Docling Serve deploy instructions: github.com/docling-project/docling-serve#getting-started
- MinerU GitHub repository: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU
- MinerU documentation, MinerU deploy instructions: opendatalab.github.io/MinerU/quick_start/
- MinerU license: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU/blob/master/LICENSE.md
- MinerU hardware requirements: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU#model-engines-with-extras
- Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-10-25): www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance
- GitHub REST API (stars, commits, releases): docs.github.com/en/rest
Every value is generated from the same verified data as the app pages. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.