ELO Office

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to ELO Office

A curated collection of the 4 best self hosted alternatives to ELO Office.

SaaS document management and archiving for small teams that organizes, stores, versions, indexes and searches documents, manages document-centric workflows, enforces retention and compliance policies, and provides a central repository for collaborative file handling.

Alternatives List

#1
Papra

Papra

Minimalistic document management and archiving platform for long-term storage, full-text search, tagging, and automated ingestion via email or folders.

Papra screenshot

Papra is a minimalistic document management and archiving platform for long-term storage and retrieval of important files such as receipts, warranties, and personal records. It focuses on a simple UI while providing automation and integrations for building a reliable digital archive.

Key Features

  • Upload, store, and manage documents in a centralized library
  • Full-text search, including extracted text from images or scanned documents
  • Tags and automatic tagging rules to organize documents
  • Organizations for sharing management across family, friends, or teams
  • Email ingestion via generated addresses to import documents automatically
  • Folder ingestion for automatically importing files from a directory
  • API, SDK, and webhooks for integrations and custom workflows
  • CLI for managing documents from the command line

Use Cases

  • Personal or family archive for receipts, warranties, and administrative documents
  • Small team document archive with shared organization access and search
  • Automated ingestion pipelines (email/folder) feeding document storage and downstream systems via webhooks

Limitations and Considerations

  • The public demo runs without a backend and uses client-side local storage only
  • Some features are explicitly marked as coming soon (for example, document sharing and document requests)

Papra is well-suited for users who want a clean, straightforward document archive without the complexity of larger DMS suites. Its ingestion options and integration hooks make it practical for both personal use and lightweight team workflows.

3.3kstars
162forks
#2
Papermerge

Papermerge

Open-source DMS that OCRs, indexes, and manages scanned PDFs, TIFFs and images with tagging, versioning, metadata and full-text search support.

Papermerge screenshot

Papermerge is a web-based document management system focused on scanned documents and digital archives. It extracts text via OCR, indexes documents for full-text search, and provides a desktop-like web UI for organizing and managing document collections.

Key Features

  • OCR processing of scanned PDFs and images (uses open-source OCR tooling to extract searchable text).
  • Full-text search with support for multiple search backends and indexing options.
  • OpenAPI-compliant REST API for automation and integrations.
  • Document versioning so original and processed versions (for example OCRed versions) are retained.
  • Categories, tags and user-defined custom fields (metadata) per document type for structured organization.
  • Page management: reorder, rotate, cut, move or extract individual pages within documents.
  • Multi-user access, group ownership and share controls for documents and folders.
  • Modern, responsive frontend with dual-panel browsing, drag-and-drop and internationalization.

Use Cases

  • Long-term archival of scanned documents for small-to-medium organizations and personal archives.
  • Processing receipts, invoices and administrative paperwork with metadata and searchable OCR text.
  • Managing contract and record versioning with searchable history and page-level edits.

Limitations and Considerations

  • Robust full-text search typically requires deploying an external search backend (e.g., Elasticsearch, Solr, Xapian) for large archives; bundled minimal setups may omit advanced search.
  • OCR and indexing are resource-intensive at scale and commonly run in background workers; production deployments should provision worker processes and sufficient CPU/RAM.
  • The public demo instance is intentionally limited (for example, OCR and full-text search may be disabled) and is reset periodically, so it is useful only for exploring the UI and basic flows.

Papermerge is a focused solution for turning scanned documents into searchable, organized archives with metadata and version control. It exposes a programmable API and can be integrated into automated ingestion pipelines for document-centric workflows.

2.9kstars
303forks
#3
VoucherVault

VoucherVault

Mobile-optimized Django web portal for storing and managing vouchers, coupons, gift cards and loyalty cards with QR/barcode support, expiry alerts and OIDC SSO.

VoucherVault is a Django-based web application for digitally storing and managing vouchers, coupons, gift cards and loyalty cards. It provides a mobile-optimized portal with scanning, barcode/QR rendering and notification capabilities for personal or small-business use.

Key Features

  • Store vouchers, coupons, gift cards and loyalty cards with metadata and optional file attachments (images, PDFs)
  • Display redeem codes as QR codes or many barcode formats; client-side scanning (camera or file) with automatic type detection
  • Transaction history support for gift cards and basic item sharing between users
  • Expiry checking and notifications via Apprise integration with configurable thresholds and schedules
  • Single Sign-On support using OpenID Connect (OIDC) with options for automatic account creation
  • REST API endpoint providing stats for dashboards and integrations (e.g., Home Assistant)
  • Docker-ready deployment with example docker-compose stacks; supports SQLite and PostgreSQL databases
  • Multi-language support and light/dark themes; optional Celery worker support for background tasks

Use Cases

  • Personal organization of digital coupons, loyalty cards and gift cards with searchable, mobile-friendly access
  • Small businesses or clubs tracking issued gift cards, transaction history and automated expiry reminders
  • Integration with home automation or dashboard systems to surface voucher counts and expiry stats via the REST API

Limitations and Considerations

  • Notifications rely on Apprise; configuring specific delivery channels requires separate Apprise setup
  • Client-side scanning depends on browser/device camera support and may vary across mobile browsers
  • Transaction history is limited to gift cards; other item types have more limited auditing
  • Docker container runs as a low-privileged www-data user, which may require adjusting host volume permissions

VoucherVault is a focused, lightweight solution for managing digital vouchers and related items. It is suitable for personal use and small deployments that need barcode/QR handling, expiry alerts and simple integration points via OIDC and a REST API.

422stars
17forks
#4
Alfresco Community Edition

Alfresco Community Edition

Open-source ECM for documents, web content, and team collaboration.

Alfresco Community Edition screenshot

Alfresco Community Edition is an open-source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform that manages the organization’s content and provides management services. It is a Java-based system with a repository-first architecture enabling document management and web content management.

Key Features

  • Central content repository with versioning and metadata
  • RESTful web scripts and APIs for customization
  • Out-of-the-box document management and web content management
  • Site-based collaboration via Alfresco Share
  • Cross-database deployment with PostgreSQL and MySQL
  • Java-based platform built on Spring
  • Open-source LGPL license

Use Cases

  • Enterprise document management and archiving
  • Web content management for corporate sites and intranets
  • Team collaboration on projects via sites and dashboards

Limitations and Considerations

  • Community support is provided by the user and community; no official commercial support.
  • Some enterprise features (e.g., governance-related capabilities) are not included in the Community Edition.

Conclusion: Alfresco Community Edition provides a scalable, open-source ECM for organizations seeking self-hosted content management and collaboration. It supports a broad range of deployment options and can be extended via standard APIs.

196stars
104forks

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