Docling Serve vs PaddleOCR
Short answer
Docling Serve: Docling document conversion (PDF, Office, images to Markdown/JSON) as a self-hosted API with a demo UI. PaddleOCR: OCR toolkit and document AI engine that turns scans, images and PDFs into LLM-ready text, Markdown or JSON. Both are in our Document processing category.
Choose PaddleOCR if you want: larger community (91.8k vs 1.9k GitHub stars).
Docling Serve and PaddleOCR 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 PaddleOCR side by side
| Docling Serve | PaddleOCR | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | OCR toolkit and document AI engine that turns scans, images and PDFs into LLM-ready text, Markdown or JSON. |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| License type | Permissive | Permissive |
| License conditions | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. |
| Status | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 1.9k | 91.8k |
| Last commit | Oct 27, 2026 | Sep 16, 2026 |
| Latest release | v1.38.2 | v3.7.0 |
| 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. | Optional. The server uses a GPU by default if available, otherwise the CPU. |
| Est. server cost | Not estimated | Not estimated |
| Deploy method | Container (Podman or Docker) | pip + PaddleX serving (HTTP API) |
| 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 documented |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | Not documented |
| Details | Full Docling Serve guide → | Full PaddleOCR guide → |
Key differences
- License: Docling Serve: MIT (Permissive). PaddleOCR: Apache-2.0 (Permissive).
- Deploy: Docling Serve: Container (Podman or Docker) · Container (Podman or Docker). PaddleOCR: pip + PaddleX serving (HTTP API) · pip + PaddleX serving (HTTP API).
- GitHub stars: Docling Serve: 1.9k. PaddleOCR: 91.8k.
- Last commit: Docling Serve: Oct 27, 2026. PaddleOCR: Sep 16, 2026.
- Latest release: Docling Serve: v1.38.2 (Oct 27, 2026). PaddleOCR: v3.7.0 (Jun 11, 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 PaddleOCR: FAQ
Docling Serve or PaddleOCR: which should a small business choose?
Choose PaddleOCR if you want: larger community (91.8k vs 1.9k GitHub stars). Docling Serve and PaddleOCR publish no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, Docling Serve or PaddleOCR?
Docling Serve: not estimated (no official RAM figure). PaddleOCR: 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 PaddleOCR need?
Docling Serve: not published. PaddleOCR: not published.
What is the license difference between Docling Serve and PaddleOCR?
Docling Serve: MIT (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. PaddleOCR: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is Docling Serve or PaddleOCR more actively maintained?
Docling Serve: Active, last commit Oct 27, 2026. PaddleOCR: Active, last commit Sep 16, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 28, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, Docling Serve or PaddleOCR?
Docling Serve installs via Container (Podman or Docker) (Container (Podman or Docker)); PaddleOCR via pip + PaddleX serving (HTTP API) (pip + PaddleX serving (HTTP API)). Docling Serve lists 4 known gotchas and PaddleOCR lists 4; see each app page.
Related
- Docling Serve self-hosting guide · PaddleOCR self-hosting guide
- All Docling Serve alternatives, ranked
- All PaddleOCR alternatives, ranked
- Docling Serve vs MinerU
- Docling Serve vs Paperless-AI
- Docling Serve vs paperless-gpt
- Docling Serve vs Unstract
- MinerU vs PaddleOCR
- PaddleOCR vs Paperless-AI
- PaddleOCR vs paperless-gpt
- PaddleOCR 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
- PaddleOCR GitHub repository: github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR
- PaddleOCR documentation: www.paddleocr.ai/
- PaddleOCR license: github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR/blob/main/LICENSE
- PaddleOCR hardware requirements, PaddleOCR deploy instructions: www.paddleocr.ai/latest/en/version3.x/inference_deployment/serving/serving.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.