Docling Serve vs Unstract
Short answer
Docling Serve: Docling document conversion (PDF, Office, images to Markdown/JSON) as a self-hosted API with a demo UI. Unstract: No-code LLM platform that turns invoices, forms and other documents into structured JSON. Both are in our Document processing category.
Choose Docling Serve if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Network copyleft (AGPL)).
Choose Unstract if you want: larger community (7.3k 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 Unstract side by side
| Docling Serve | Unstract | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | No-code LLM platform that turns invoices, forms and other documents into structured JSON. |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| License type | Permissive | Network copyleft (AGPL) |
| License conditions | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. | Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Unstract and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source code under AGPL-3.0. |
| Status | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 1.9k | 7.3k |
| Last commit | Oct 27, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 |
| Latest release | v1.38.2 | v0.198.1 |
| Minimum hardware | Not published | 8 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. | Not required by the platform itself; LLMs are reached through the provider you configure (cloud API or a local server such as Ollama). |
| Est. server cost | Not estimated | from €35.99/mo |
| Deploy method | Container (Podman or Docker) | Docker Compose (run-platform.sh) |
| 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 | Paid / enterprise only (OIDC paid · SAML paid) |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | Not documented |
| Details | Full Docling Serve guide → | Full Unstract guide → |
Key differences
- License: Docling Serve: MIT (Permissive). Unstract: AGPL-3.0 (Network copyleft (AGPL)).
- Official hardware: Docling Serve: not published. Unstract: minimum 8 GB RAM.
- Est. server cost: Docling Serve: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Unstract: from €35.99/mo.
- Deploy: Docling Serve: Container (Podman or Docker) · Container (Podman or Docker). Unstract: Docker Compose (run-platform.sh) · multi-container stack.
- GitHub stars: Docling Serve: 1.9k. Unstract: 7.3k.
- Latest release: Docling Serve: v1.38.2 (Oct 27, 2026). Unstract: v0.198.1 (Oct 28, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Document processing; GPU: optional / see notes; Status: Active; Last commit: Oct 27, 2026.
Docling Serve vs Unstract: FAQ
Docling Serve or Unstract: which should a small business choose?
Choose Docling Serve if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Network copyleft (AGPL)). Choose Unstract if you want: larger community (7.3k 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 Unstract?
Docling Serve: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Unstract: from €35.99/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 Unstract need?
Docling Serve: not published. Unstract: minimum 8 GB RAM.
What is the license difference between Docling Serve and Unstract?
Docling Serve: MIT (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. Unstract: AGPL-3.0 (Network copyleft (AGPL)). Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Unstract and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source code under AGPL-3.0. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is Docling Serve or Unstract more actively maintained?
Docling Serve: Active, last commit Oct 27, 2026. Unstract: Active, last commit Oct 27, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 28, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, Docling Serve or Unstract?
Docling Serve installs via Container (Podman or Docker) (Container (Podman or Docker)); Unstract via Docker Compose (run-platform.sh) (multi-container stack). Docling Serve lists 4 known gotchas and Unstract lists 4; see each app page.
Related
- Docling Serve self-hosting guide · Unstract self-hosting guide
- All Docling Serve alternatives, ranked
- All Unstract alternatives, ranked
- Docling Serve vs MinerU
- Docling Serve vs PaddleOCR
- Docling Serve vs Paperless-AI
- Docling Serve vs paperless-gpt
- MinerU vs Unstract
- PaddleOCR vs Unstract
- Paperless-AI vs Unstract
- paperless-gpt 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
- Unstract GitHub repository: github.com/Zipstack/unstract
- Unstract documentation: docs.unstract.com/unstract/unstract_platform/quick_start
- Unstract license: github.com/Zipstack/unstract/blob/main/LICENSE
- Unstract hardware requirements, Unstract deploy instructions: github.com/Zipstack/unstract#readme
- 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.