Paperless-ngx
Scan, index, and archive all of your paper documents with an improved interface (fork of Paperless).
Best self-hosted Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) software in 2026
Digital archiving and preservation software.
We track 19 open-source, self-hosted Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) apps. 17 of them had commits in the last 90 days, 14 can run with Docker, and the most common licenses are GPL-3.0 (8), AGPL-3.0 (7), MIT (3). The most-used languages are Python, Go, PHP. Below are the top picks by GitHub stars, followed by every app ranked by stars weighted by maintenance health.
Top 5 by GitHub stars
| # | App | Stars | Health | Last activity | License | Language | Docker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paperless-ngx | 48.1k | Active | 2026-11-09 | GPL-3.0 | Python, Docker | ✓ |
| 2 | ArchiveBox | 29k | Active | 2026-11-08 | MIT | Python, Docker | ✓ |
| 3 | Wallabag | 13.1k | Active | 2026-11-09 | MIT | PHP | – |
| 4 | Tube Archivist | 8.6k | Active | 2026-10-25 | GPL-3.0 | Docker | ✓ |
| 5 | Papra | 5.7k | Active | 2026-10-30 | AGPL-3.0 | Docker | ✓ |
- Paperless-ngx — Scan, index, and archive all of your paper documents with an improved interface (fork of Paperless).
- ArchiveBox — Create HTML & screenshot archives of sites from your bookmarks, browsing history, RSS feeds, or other sources (alternative to Wayback Machine).
- Wallabag — Web application, formerly Poche, allowing you to save articles to read them later with improved readability.
- Tube Archivist — Organize, search, and enjoy your YouTube collection. Subscribe, download, and track viewed content with metadata indexing and a user-friendly interface.
- Papra — Minimalist document storage, management and archiving platform designed to be simple to use and accessible to everyone.
Head-to-head comparisons
ArchiveBox vs Paperless-ngxPaperless-ngx vs WallabagPaperless-ngx vs Tube ArchivistArchiveBox vs WallabagArchiveBox vs Tube ArchivistTube Archivist vs Wallabag
All 19 self-hosted Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) apps
Ranked by GitHub stars weighted by maintenance health.
ArchiveBox
Create HTML & screenshot archives of sites from your bookmarks, browsing history, RSS feeds, or other sources (alternative to Wayback Machine).
Wallabag
Web application, formerly Poche, allowing you to save articles to read them later with improved readability.
Tube Archivist
Organize, search, and enjoy your YouTube collection. Subscribe, download, and track viewed content with metadata indexing and a user-friendly interface.
Papra
Minimalist document storage, management and archiving platform designed to be simple to use and accessible to everyone.
CKAN
Make open data websites.
Open Archiver
Email archiving solution with full-text search and eDiscovery search features.
Wayback
Toolkit for archiving webpages to the Internet Archive, archive.today, IPFS, and local file systems.
mail-archiver
Web application for archiving, searching, and exporting emails from multiple accounts (IMAP, M365 or Import). Featuring folder sync, attachment support, mailbox migration and a dashboard.
Bichon
Email archiving server that syncs from IMAP accounts, indexes emails for full-text search, and provides a REST API. No external database required, includes WebUI with multi-account support.
Readeck
Save the precious readable content of web pages you like and want to keep forever. See it as a bookmark manager and a read later tool.
Ganymede
Twitch VOD and live stream archiving platform. Includes a rendered chat for each archive.
bitmagnet
BitTorrent indexer, DHT crawler, content classifier and torrent search engine with web UI, GraphQL API and Servarr stack integration.
Omeka S
Next-generation web publishing platform for institutions interested in connecting digital cultural heritage collections with other resources online.
ArchivesSpace
Archives information management application for managing and providing Web access to archives, manuscripts and digital objects.
Collective Access - Providence
Highly configurable Web-based framework for management, description, and discovery of digital and physical collections supporting a variety of metadata standards, data types, and media formats.
Piler
Feature-rich email archiving solution.
Eonvelope
Email archiving software that allows you to preserve your emails for an indefinite long period of time.
Sosse
Selenium based search engine and crawler with offline archiving.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best self-hosted Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) software in 2026?
By GitHub stars, the most popular self-hosted Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) apps are Paperless-ngx (48,103 stars), ArchiveBox (29,029 stars), Wallabag (13,056 stars). Popularity is only one signal: also check maintenance health, license and whether it fits your setup.
How many self-hosted Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) apps are actively maintained?
17 of the 19 apps listed had commits in the last 90 days and 2 more in the last 12 months.
Which self-hosted Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) apps can I run with Docker?
14 of the 19 apps can run with Docker; 2 publish an image on Docker Hub, including ArchiveBox and ArchivesSpace.
Which licenses do self-hosted Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) apps use?
The most common licenses in this category are GPL-3.0 (8 apps), AGPL-3.0 (7 apps), MIT (3 apps).
How much does it cost to self-host Archiving and Digital Preservation (DP) software?
The software itself is free to download. Based on our rough hardware estimates, the cheapest suitable VPS plan starts at about $10/month (median $10/month across apps in this category). Several light apps can share one server.
Related categories
Figures from GitHub and Docker Hub as of 2026-11-15; hosting costs are rough estimates.