Documind

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Documind

A curated collection of the 2 best self hosted alternatives to Documind.

Documind is a cloud AI document-analysis service for uploading PDFs and other files to query content conversationally, generate summaries, extract answers and structured insights, and perform retrieval-augmented searches across document collections.

Alternatives List

#1
Paperless-AI

Paperless-AI

Extension for Paperless‑ngx that uses OpenAI-compatible backends and Ollama to auto-classify, tag, index, and enable RAG-powered document chat and semantic search.

Paperless-AI screenshot

Paperless-AI is an AI-powered extension for Paperless‑ngx that automates document classification, metadata extraction and semantic search. It integrates with OpenAI-compatible APIs and local model backends to provide chat-style Q&A over a Paperless‑ngx archive.

Key Features

  • Automated document processing: detects new documents in Paperless‑ngx and extracts title, tags, document type, and correspondent.
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) chat: semantic search and contextual Q&A across the full document archive.
  • Multi-backend model support: works with OpenAI-compatible APIs, Ollama (local models), DeepSeek-r1, Azure and several other OpenAI-format backends.
  • Manual review UI: web interface to manually trigger AI processing, review results, and adjust settings.
  • Smart tagging and rule engine: configurable rules to control which documents are processed and what tags are applied.
  • Docker-first distribution: official Docker image and docker-compose support for containerized deployment and persistent storage.

Use Cases

  • Quickly find facts across scanned bills, contracts and receipts via natural-language Q&A instead of manual search.
  • Automatically tag and classify incoming documents to reduce manual filing and speed up archival workflows.
  • Create structured metadata from free-text documents for downstream automation or reporting.

Limitations and Considerations

  • Quality and consistency of automatic tags and correspondents varies by model and prompt; some users report noisy or incorrect tags that require manual cleanup.
  • Resource behavior with local model backends (e.g., Ollama) can be heavy; users have reported long-running sessions or elevated GPU/CPU usage depending on model choice and volume.
  • Processing can halt on model/API errors (for example, context-length or API failures); robust retry/monitoring may be required in large archives.
  • Requires a running Paperless‑ngx instance and appropriate API credentials and model/back-end configuration to operate.

Paperless-AI provides an accessible way to add AI-driven classification and semantic search to a Paperless‑ngx archive, with flexible backend choices and a modern web UI. It is best suited for users who want automated tagging and conversational access to large document collections but should be configured and monitored to manage resource use and tag quality.

5kstars
237forks
View Details
#2
SecureAI Tools

SecureAI Tools

Self-hosted private AI tools for chat and document Q&A, supporting local Ollama inference or OpenAI-compatible APIs, with built-in authentication and user management.

SecureAI Tools is a self-hosted web app for private AI productivity, focused on AI chat and chatting with your own documents. It can run models locally via Ollama or connect to OpenAI-compatible providers, and includes built-in access controls for multi-user use.

Key Features

  • Chat interface for interacting with LLMs
  • Document Q&A (PDF support) with offline document processing
  • Local model inference via Ollama, with optional GPU acceleration
  • Support for remote OpenAI-compatible APIs as an alternative to local inference
  • Built-in email/password authentication and basic user management
  • Optimized self-hosting experience with Docker Compose and setup scripts
  • Integrations including Paperless-ngx and Google Drive

Use Cases

  • Private, family or small-team AI assistant with account-based access
  • Ask questions and summarize PDFs and organized document collections
  • Run local LLMs on a workstation or home server to keep data on-premises

Limitations and Considerations

  • Document chat is currently focused on PDFs; broader file-type support is still evolving
  • Local inference performance depends heavily on available RAM/GPU, especially on non-Apple systems

SecureAI Tools is a practical option for users who want a privacy-oriented AI chat experience combined with document Q&A, and the flexibility to choose between local models and OpenAI-compatible providers.

1.7kstars
87forks
View Details

Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running