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Productivitydocker-ready100% FOSS🔴 Full · ~2GB

Paperless-ngx: Open Source alternative to Evernote in 2026

Paperless-ngx digitizes, archives and makes all your paperwork searchable: scan or upload a document and it indexes it by text (OCR), tags and dates automatically, so you never lose an invoice again.

Alternative to Evernote
License GPL-3.046.6k starsWebsite GitHub Repository

Audit Snapshot

View notes →

  • License — Matches GitHub

  • GitHub — Active

  • Latest release — v3.3.1 · today

  • Docker Compose — Not verified

  • Production — Not production-tested by AltFreeStack

Paperless-ngx vs. Evernote

Pros

  • Turns years of physical paperwork into something searchable in seconds
  • Very active community, integrates well with network scanners

Things to consider

  • OCR is CPU-intensive; very long documents can take a while

Quick Docker installation guide

Copy this docker-compose.yml, adjust the example passwords and run docker compose up -d on your server. See the full step-by-step guide →

💡 Official SaaS or self-hosted with AltFreeStack?

  • On the official cloud: a recurring monthly fee and usage limits on Evernote.
  • On your own VPS: 100% free software on your own server, with no artificial row, project or user limits.
docker-compose.yml
services:
  broker:
    image: docker.io/library/redis:7
  db:
    image: docker.io/library/postgres:16
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: paperless
      POSTGRES_USER: paperless
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: change-me
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  webserver:
    image: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest
    depends_on:
      - db
      - broker
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    environment:
      PAPERLESS_REDIS: redis://broker:6379
      PAPERLESS_DBHOST: db
      PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY: change-me-super-secret
    volumes:
      - data:/usr/src/paperless/data
      - media:/usr/src/paperless/media
      - ./consume:/usr/src/paperless/consume
volumes:
  pgdata: {}
  data: {}
  media: {}

🚀 Deploy in 1 command

Recommended for beginners

Copy this single command and paste it into your freshly created VPS's console (Vultr, DigitalOcean...). It downloads the script, prints it to your screen so you can see exactly what it's about to do (never a blind direct pipe), and only then installs Docker if needed, writes the files with secrets already generated, and starts everything — no nano, no pasting code blocks.

curl -sSL ".../api/deploy?stack=paperless-ngx" -o deploy.sh && cat deploy.sh && bash deploy.sh
See what this script does →

This docker-compose corresponds to an actively maintained project — last commit today.

This docker-compose not working for you? Report it on GitHub →

Technical profile

License
GPL-3.0
Category
Productivity
Replaces
Evernote
Tech stack
PythonDjangoPostgreSQLRedis

Under the hood

Database

PostgreSQL

Language

Python (Django)

Platforms

Web

Key features

  • Automatic OCR with text and language recognition
  • Automatic tagging and correspondent matching by rules
  • 'Consume' folder to scan and forget
💾 Backups in 3 steps (Day 2)

As long as the ./data folder (the "volume" mapped into the container) exists on your server, your data survives any restart or container update — that's the only thing you need to back up.

1. Create a compressed backup on the server

tar -czvf backup-$(date +%F).tar.gz ./data

2. Download it to your computer

From your computer's terminal (not your server's):

scp root@YOUR_IP:~/app/backup-*.tar.gz ./

3. Restore in case of emergency

tar -xzvf backup-file.tar.gz
🌐 Connect your domain with free SSL

Step 1 — Set up the DNS

In your domain registrar's dashboard (Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy...), create a record:

Type
A
Name/Host
@ (root domain) or a subdomain, e.g. app
Content/Value
Your server's public IP

Wait 5 to 15 minutes for the record to propagate across the internet.

Step 2 — Automatic reverse proxy with Caddy

One single file, no Nginx config or manual certificates — Caddy issues and renews Let's Encrypt HTTPS on its own.

Create a file called Caddyfile:

yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8000
}

Start Caddy with this command (pulls the image and runs it in the background):

docker run -d -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --name caddy --restart always -v $PWD/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile -v caddy_data:/data caddy