Docling Serve vs OCRmyPDF
Short answer
Docling Serve: Docling document conversion (PDF, Office, images to Markdown/JSON) as a self-hosted API with a demo UI. OCRmyPDF: Command-line tool and Docker image that adds a searchable OCR text layer to scanned PDFs, with a watched-folder service. Both are in our Document processing category.
Choose Docling Serve if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Copyleft (GPL)).
Choose OCRmyPDF if you want: larger community (35.2k vs 1.9k GitHub stars).
Docling Serve and OCRmyPDF publish 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 OCRmyPDF side by side
| Docling Serve | OCRmyPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Command-line tool and Docker image that adds a searchable OCR text layer to scanned PDFs, with a watched-folder service. |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| License type | Permissive | Copyleft (GPL) |
| License conditions | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. | Free for internal and commercial use. MPL-2.0 is file-level copyleft: if you distribute modified OCRmyPDF files, you must release those files' source under MPL-2.0. The demo web service is AGPL-3.0, and Ghostscript, which OCRmyPDF can use, is AGPL-licensed. |
| Status | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 1.9k | 35.2k |
| Last commit | Oct 27, 2026 | Oct 25, 2026 |
| Latest release | v1.38.2 | v17.13.0 |
| Minimum hardware | Not published | Not published |
| 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. | No. Tesseract runs on CPU; the optional EasyOCR plugin is the one that recommends a GPU. |
| Est. server cost | Not estimated | Not estimated |
| Deploy method | Container (Podman or Docker) | Docker (watched-folder service) |
| Known gotchas | 4 listed | 4 listed |
| Telemetry | Not documented | Not documented |
| Calls home by default | Not documented | Not documented |
| SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP) | Not documented | Not applicable |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | Not documented |
| Details | Full Docling Serve guide → | Full OCRmyPDF guide → |
Key differences
- License: Docling Serve: MIT (Permissive). OCRmyPDF: MPL-2.0 (Copyleft (GPL)).
- Deploy: Docling Serve: Container (Podman or Docker) · Container (Podman or Docker). OCRmyPDF: Docker (watched-folder service) · single container.
- GitHub stars: Docling Serve: 1.9k. OCRmyPDF: 35.2k.
- Last commit: Docling Serve: Oct 27, 2026. OCRmyPDF: Oct 25, 2026.
- Latest release: Docling Serve: v1.38.2 (Oct 27, 2026). OCRmyPDF: v17.13.0 (Sep 28, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Document processing; Official hardware: not published; GPU: optional / see notes; Est. server cost: not estimated (no official RAM figure); Status: Active.
Docling Serve vs OCRmyPDF: FAQ
Docling Serve or OCRmyPDF: which should a small business choose?
Choose Docling Serve if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Copyleft (GPL)). Choose OCRmyPDF if you want: larger community (35.2k vs 1.9k GitHub stars). Docling Serve and OCRmyPDF publish no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, Docling Serve or OCRmyPDF?
Docling Serve: not estimated (no official RAM figure). OCRmyPDF: not estimated (no official RAM figure). 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 OCRmyPDF need?
Docling Serve: not published. OCRmyPDF: not published.
What is the license difference between Docling Serve and OCRmyPDF?
Docling Serve: MIT (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. OCRmyPDF: MPL-2.0 (Copyleft (GPL)). Free for internal and commercial use. MPL-2.0 is file-level copyleft: if you distribute modified OCRmyPDF files, you must release those files' source under MPL-2.0. The demo web service is AGPL-3.0, and Ghostscript, which OCRmyPDF can use, is AGPL-licensed. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is Docling Serve or OCRmyPDF more actively maintained?
Docling Serve: Active, last commit Oct 27, 2026. OCRmyPDF: Active, last commit Oct 25, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Nov 1, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, Docling Serve or OCRmyPDF?
Docling Serve installs via Container (Podman or Docker) (Container (Podman or Docker)); OCRmyPDF via Docker (watched-folder service) (single container). Docling Serve lists 4 known gotchas and OCRmyPDF lists 4; see each app page.
Related
- Docling Serve self-hosting guide · OCRmyPDF self-hosting guide
- All Docling Serve alternatives, ranked
- All OCRmyPDF alternatives, ranked
- Docling Serve vs MinerU
- Docling Serve vs PaddleOCR
- Docling Serve vs Paperless-AI
- Docling Serve vs paperless-gpt
- Docling Serve vs Paperless-ngx
- Docling Serve vs Unstract
- MinerU vs OCRmyPDF
- OCRmyPDF vs PaddleOCR
- OCRmyPDF vs Paperless-AI
- OCRmyPDF vs paperless-gpt
- OCRmyPDF vs Paperless-ngx
- OCRmyPDF 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
- OCRmyPDF GitHub repository: github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF
- OCRmyPDF documentation: ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
- OCRmyPDF license: github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF/blob/main/LICENSE
- OCRmyPDF hardware requirements: ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/performance.html
- OCRmyPDF deploy instructions: ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/batch.html
- 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.