What is Document Management?
A self-hosted document management system turns your physical paperwork into a searchable digital archive. Scan or upload documents, and OCR automatically extracts text, making every receipt, contract, and letter fully searchable.
Paperless-ngx is the community favorite — it uses machine learning to automatically tag, categorize, and assign correspondents to your documents. Upload via the web UI, email, or a scanner folder, and Paperless handles the rest. Mayan EDMS is the enterprise-grade option with workflow automation, version control, and role-based access for teams.
Self-hosting your DMS means complete data sovereignty. Sensitive financial records, medical documents, and contracts never leave your server. A $5/mo VPS handles thousands of documents with full-text search across your entire archive.
$ apt list --installable
Popular Document Management Software
Top open-source tools you can self-host on your VPS.
Paperless-ngx
The most popular self-hosted DMS. ML-powered auto-tagging, OCR in 100+ languages, and a modern web UI. Supports PDF, Office docs, images, and email import.
Official siteMayan EDMS
Enterprise-grade document management with workflow automation, version control, and role-based access. Scales to millions of documents with AI-powered search.
Official siteDocspell
Personal document organizer with automatic tagging and full-text search. Designed for individuals and small teams who want a simple, effective DMS.
Official siteTeedy
Lightweight, open-source document management. Simple tagging, OCR, and full-text search with a clean web interface. Low resource requirements.
Official siteVPS Specifications
What you need to run document management workloads.
$ top --providers --for=documents
Best Providers for Document Management
Hand-picked based on specs, pricing, and suitability for document management workloads.
Contabo
Large storage allocations at low cost — perfect for growing document archives
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Hetzner
Fast NVMe storage for responsive OCR processing and full-text search
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Hostinger
Reliable 4GB RAM plans with NVMe storage for Paperless-ngx at competitive pricing
Get Started$ man documents
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Paperless-ngx handle OCR?
Paperless-ngx uses the Tesseract OCR engine to extract text from scanned documents and images. It supports 100+ languages and saves documents in PDF/A archival format alongside the original file. OCR runs automatically on upload.
How much storage do I need for documents?
Plan for 1-5MB per document on average (varies by page count). A 100GB VPS can hold 20,000-100,000 documents. Both Paperless-ngx and Mayan EDMS store originals plus OCR-processed versions.
Can multiple users access the DMS?
Yes. Both systems support multiple users with role-based permissions. Paperless-ngx has per-document access controls. Mayan EDMS adds check-in/check-out workflows and unlimited custom roles.
Is OCR processing resource-intensive?
Yes, OCR uses significant CPU and memory during document processing. A 2 vCPU / 4GB RAM VPS handles typical daily scanning. For bulk imports of hundreds of documents, processing runs in a queue so it doesn't overwhelm the server.
Can I migrate from Google Drive or Dropbox?
Yes. Export your documents from cloud storage and use the bulk import features in either system. Paperless-ngx supports import from folders, email, and the web UI. Documents will be OCR-processed and indexed after import.
Ready to self-host Document Management?
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