Paperless-ngx is a document management system that scans, OCRs, tags, and archives your paper documents into a searchable digital library. Consumes from email, scanner upload, watched folder; OCRs everything via Tesseract; auto-tags via machine learning. Replaces a filing cabinet with a fast searchable archive.
For households and small businesses drowning in paper — receipts, contracts, bills, tax docs — Paperless-ngx is the canonical answer.
What it's for
Household paper archival — receipts, invoices, tax documents, contracts
Small business records — supplier invoices, contracts, employee documents
Legal compliance — retain financial records for required statutory periods
Tax preparation — searchable archive of all year-relevant documents
Office digitization — scan-and-shred workflow for going paperless
Who it's for
Households & families managing personal paperwork (taxes, bills, contracts)
Small business owners replacing physical filing with searchable digital archive
Accountants organizing client documents per tax year
Legal professionals managing case documents with full-text search
Privacy-conscious users rejecting cloud document services for sensitive paperwork
Why teams pick Paperless-ngx over alternatives
GPL-3.0 — fully open, no commercial restrictions for self-host
OCR built-in — Tesseract integration on every document automatically
Auto-tagging — ML-based classification trained on your tagging patterns
Email ingestion — forward bills/receipts to a dedicated address, auto-import
Mobile-friendly — responsive UI, mobile scanner app integrations
Active development — community-maintained fork after original abandonment
Integrations
Document sources — watched folder, email IMAP, REST API upload, mobile apps
OCR engines — Tesseract (100+ languages), djvulibre for DJVU
Scanners — any device that can scan-to-folder or scan-to-email
Mobile apps — Paperless Mobile (Android), iOS via web
Identity — local users + LDAP via reverse proxy auth
Storage — local filesystem or S3-compatible for documents
Webhooks — fire on document classification events
Notable users & community
23k+ GitHub stars
Featured constantly on r/selfhosted as "the project that ended my paper backlog"
Active GitHub Discussions community
Continuous releases tracking OCR improvements
Community-maintained fork of original Paperless (now Paperless-ngx)
Tips & operations
Email ingestion changes life — forward all bills/receipts to a dedicated address, auto-import
Document tagging ML — needs training data; tag 50-100 documents manually first
OCR is CPU-heavy — bulk-import of years of paper can take days; let it run
Use S3 for documents — local storage grows fast; offload originals to S3-compatible
Tika + Gotenberg for office docs — DOCX/PPTX preview needs these sidecars
Backup is critical — these ARE your important documents; verify backup integrity regularly
The lowest-friction way onto BluixApps. You get 19 hand-curated, ready-to-run application stacks on a single managed VPS — pick a stack, click deploy, the platform handles the operating system, updates, backups and TLS. Subscription, cancel anytime.
What's included
19 curated stacks (Private AI Plus, Legal Office, Medical, Creator, Marketing, Personal Cloud and 13 more)
Single VPS, fully managed by BluixApps
Auto-update across the stack (OS + apps + dependencies)
Auto-backup (daily, retained per platform policy)
Free auto-renewing TLS via Let's Encrypt
Standard support window
What's NOT in this tier
The full 234-app catalog (start at Starter for that)
Multi-tenant isolation (Stacks is single-customer, single-VPS)
White-label customisation
Best for
Solo professionals who want a pre-baked stack and zero ops
Replacing a hand-rolled VPS that's grown into a maintenance burden
Trying out BluixApps before scaling up to reseller tiers
Plan facts
Price — $19/mo
Provisioning — typically a few minutes after order
BluixApps Starter — full catalog, up to 10 isolated tenants
The reseller-ready entry point. Full BluixApps catalog (234 self-hosted apps + 19 curated stacks) provisioned across up to 10 isolated tenant environments. Each tenant gets its own keys, its own backups, its own update window. Designed for solo hosters and small consultancies running 5–10 customer environments.
What's included
Full BluixApps catalog (234 self-hosted apps + 19 curated stacks)
Up to 10 isolated tenants — each with separate auth, data and lifecycle
Per-tenant auto-update + auto-backup
Free auto-renewing TLS per tenant domain
Standard support window
White-label add-on available (+$15–25/mo)
Best for
Solo hosters running 5–10 customer accounts
Small consultancies bundling self-hosted apps into client deliverables
Internal IT serving a handful of departments or business units
Where to upgrade from here
When you cross 10 tenants, or when you need priority bugfix queueing, step up to Pro.
Plan facts
Price — $49/mo
Provisioning — typically a few minutes after order
BluixApps Pro — 25 isolated tenants, priority bugfix lane
For professional resellers with an established customer base. Same full catalog and isolation model as Starter, expanded to 25 tenants, plus a priority queue for bugfix releases — your tickets and reproducers get fast-tracked over the standard intake.
What's included on top of Starter
Up to 25 isolated tenants
Priority bugfix lane — your reproducers jump the standard queue
All Starter features (catalog, isolation, auto-update, auto-backup, TLS)
White-label add-on available (+$15–25/mo)
Best for
Professional resellers running 15–25 active customer environments
Boutique MSPs whose customers expect fast fix turnaround
Teams scaling past the Starter cap but not yet at Growth volume
Plan facts
Price — $149/mo
Provisioning — typically a few minutes after order
The four-figure-customer tier. 100 isolated tenants, tenant-isolated license keys, full reseller toolkit. Designed for resellers transitioning from "managing a handful of accounts manually" to "operating a real multi-tenant business."
What's included on top of Pro
Up to 100 isolated tenants
Tenant-isolated license keys — each customer gets their own key, scoped to their tenant
BluixApps Scale — 500 tenants, 7-day support window
For power hosters with established multi-tenant infrastructure. 500 isolated tenants, extended 7-day support window (vs. business-hours on lower tiers), full feature set. Designed for operators whose BluixApps deployment is now business-critical and whose downtime has revenue consequences.
What's included on top of Growth
Up to 500 isolated tenants
7-day support window
All Growth features (catalog, isolation, tenant keys, reseller toolkit)
White-label add-on available (+$15–25/mo)
Best for
Power hosters running 200–500 active customer tenants
Operators where BluixApps uptime is itself part of the customer SLA
Multi-region or multi-cluster deployments
Where to upgrade from here
When you outgrow 500 tenants or need white-label bundled by default, move to Enterprise.
Plan facts
Price — $799/mo
Provisioning — typically a few minutes after order
For multi-tenant infrastructure players. Unlimited tenants, white-label always on (bundled, not an add-on), REST API surface for multi-tenant orchestration, priority 7-day support and custom catalog curation when standard 234 apps + 19 stacks isn't the right shape for your business.
What's included on top of Scale
Unlimited tenants
White-label bundled (no add-on fee, always on)
REST API for multi-tenant orchestration (provision / lifecycle / billing hooks)
Priority 7-day support window
Custom catalog curation available — add private apps, remove unused ones, build a vertical-specific catalog
Per-tenant subscription pricing — talk to us about volume terms
Best for
Hyperscalers and large MSPs deploying BluixApps across thousands of customer endpoints
Operators standardising BluixApps as the white-label foundation of their own product
Vertical SaaS plays (legal, medical, creative) needing a curated catalog
Plan facts
Price — from $1,499/mo (base); custom volume pricing on request
Onboarding — typically 1–2 weeks, includes architecture review
Support — priority 7-day window with dedicated escalation
Refund — 30-day money-back guarantee on the base subscription
