The same calm archive, with apps, AI and team controls.
Papra is a lovely open-source document archive with OCR search and email intake, self-hosted or in its EU cloud. Stoatify shares that calm-archive philosophy and goes further: native apps on every platform, a built-in AI/MCP integration, ready-made life categories and granular team permissions.
A minimalist, open-source document archiving platform (self-host or EU cloud).
Why people move to Stoatify
Built to be a vault, not a drive.
Native apps everywhere
First-party web, iOS and Android apps with capture on the go. Papra is web-only today, with mobile and desktop apps still on the roadmap.
Built-in AI access
A built-in MCP server lets assistants search and organize your vault now. Papra lists AI as a maybe-someday feature.
Fine-grained team control
Custom RBAC roles, groups and per-document ACLs, beyond Papra's owner-and-member model.
Feature by feature
Stoatify vs Papra, side by side.
A fair look at how the two stack up for organizing the documents of real life.
| Capability | Stoatify | Papra |
|---|---|---|
| Organize for real life | ||
| Purpose-built for life documents | ||
| Ready-made real-life categories (Taxes, Identity, Medical…) | Tags only | |
| Tags, saved views & folders | ||
| Full-text OCR search inside scans & PDFs | ||
| AI auto-filing (category, tags, date) | Tagging rules | |
| Capture & automated intake | ||
| Drag, drop & mobile photo capture | Web upload | |
| Private email / IMAP intake address | ||
| Watched folders, URL & CLI import | Folders & CLI | |
| Formats & OCR breadth | ||
| Multi-language OCR (100+ languages) | ||
| Office / ODF (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) preview conversion | ||
| PDF/A archival copies | ||
| Collaborate & secure | ||
| Org sharing with roles (RBAC) | Owner / member | |
| Per-document & per-folder permissions | ||
| Share links for a document or a whole search (password, expiry, registry) | Documents only | |
| SSO / SAML / OIDC | ||
| Files proxied behind your auth (no public object URLs) | Self-host | |
| Versioning, audit & admin | ||
| Document versioning with one-click restore | ||
| Field-level before & after change history | ||
| Org-wide activity feed | ||
| Org usage & insights dashboard for documents | ||
| Organization audit log | ||
| Notify & integrate | ||
| Reminders / expiry tracking | ||
| Scheduled queries & notifications | ||
| Webhooks (events, signing secret, JSON filters) | ||
| Scoped API keys (per-resource permissions) | ||
| CLI & TypeScript SDK | ||
| E-signatures | ||
| Drag-and-drop template / form builder | ||
| Signable field types (signature, initials, date, checkbox…) | ||
| Multi-party signing with configurable order | ||
| Cryptographic PDF signing (PAdES/PKCS7) & verification | ||
| AI & platform | ||
| Built-in MCP server for AI assistants | ||
| Native web, iOS & Android apps | Web only | |
| Free plan | Yes | 512 MB |
The differences that matter
What actually changes day to day.
Native apps vs web only
Stoatify ships native web, iOS and Android apps. Papra is responsive web only, with mobile and desktop apps still listed as coming soon.
Ready-made categories vs free-form tags
Stoatify organizes documents into a curated set of life categories out of the box, and you can rename or add your own. Papra leans on free-form tags and custom properties you define.
Granular permissions
Stoatify adds custom roles, groups and per-document ACLs. Papra's team model is essentially owner and member, without per-document access control.
AI built in
Stoatify's MCP server connects assistants to your vault today. Papra has no AI or MCP integration yet.
In fairness
When Papra is the better choice.
If you want a genuinely open-source (AGPL) archive you can self-host and fully own, with a clean web UI, a documented API, SDK, webhooks and CLI to build on, and an EU-hosted cloud option, Papra is excellent and we admire it. Stoatify is the better fit when you want native apps, built-in AI, ready-made categories and fine-grained team permissions without assembling them yourself.
FAQ
Switching from Papra.
Is Stoatify open-source like Papra?+
Stoatify is a managed product rather than self-hosted software. It trades self-hosting for native apps on every platform, built-in AI access and fine-grained team permissions out of the box.
Does Papra have OCR search like Stoatify?+
Yes, Papra extracts text for full-text search, so both let you search inside documents. The bigger differences are native apps, AI/MCP access, ready-made categories and per-document permissions.
How do I move from Papra to Stoatify?+
Export your documents from Papra and drag them into Stoatify, or route them through an email or watched-folder intake so they import and auto-organize as they arrive.
Compare Stoatify with more tools
Give your paperwork a real home.
Bring your documents over from Papra and see the difference organization makes. Free to start, no credit card.
No credit card required