Stirling-PDF vs Forgejo
Detailed comparison to help you choose the right tool for your needs
S
Stirling-PDF
Self-hosted PDF toolkit with 60+ tools
4.6
Editorial RatingQuick Comparison
Rating
4.6
vs4.5
Starting Price
Free
vsFree
Pricing Model
freemium
vsfree
Feature
Stirling-PDF
Forgejo
Merge & split PDFs
OCR text recognition
Digital signatures
Format conversion
Batch processing API
Self-hosted (Docker)
Git hosting
Issue tracking
Pull requests
CI/CD Actions
Package registry
OAuth2/OIDC
Stirling-PDF Pros
- 60+ PDF operations in one tool
- Dead simple Docker deployment
- Documents never leave your server
- Active development (76K GitHub stars)
- API-first for workflow automation
- Ultra-lite image available (1GB RAM)
Stirling-PDF Cons
- Text editing still in alpha
- Not a full Adobe Acrobat replacement
- OCR requires full Docker image
- No real-time collaborative editing
- Enterprise features are newer
- No native mobile app
Forgejo Pros
- Community-governed fork of Gitea
- GitHub Actions compatible CI
- Lightweight single binary
- Active development
- No corporate ownership
- Federation support coming
Forgejo Cons
- Smaller community than Gitea
- Fewer third-party integrations
- Documentation still maturing
- Some Gitea plugins may not be compatible
- Less name recognition