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Comparison · Collab
Komga vs Paperless-ngx
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Komga and Paperless-ngx — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:self-hosted
Komga vs Paperless-ngx: at a glance
What is Komga?
After two years of quiet fixes, Komga puts a whole new web UI in front of users.
Komga's recent history is almost entirely maintenance — archive-format edge cases, EPUB table-of-contents parsing, Kobo and OPDS compatibility, and a long tail of dependency bumps and translations. Release 1.26.0 breaks that pattern by shipping NextUI, a rewritten web interface, in beta and served alongside the existing one from the same server. The old UI remains the default, and the new one is reached from a sidebar link or a /next path, with a published list of what is still missing.
What is Paperless-ngx?
Paperless-ngx shipped its 3.0 rewrite, then spent a week putting out the fires.
3.0.0 landed on July 22 after a long beta, carrying both the largest feature set in the project's history and nine breaking changes. The five releases since are pure repair: a broken migration in 3.0.1 that forced an immediate 3.0.2, then three patch rounds covering OCR skipping, permission-filtered dedup, Gotenberg conversion, email date parsing, AI suggestion caching and search index edge cases. The pace tells you 3.0 shipped into real deployments fast.
Komga vs Paperless-ngx: editorial side-by-side
Komga
6.3COLLAB
After two years of quiet fixes, Komga puts a whole new web UI in front of users.
◆ Current state
Komga's recent history is almost entirely maintenance — archive-format edge cases, EPUB table-of-contents parsing, Kobo and OPDS compatibility, and a long tail of dependency bumps and translations. Release 1.26.0 breaks that pattern by shipping NextUI, a rewritten web interface, in beta and served alongside the existing one from the same server. The old UI remains the default, and the new one is reached from a sidebar link or a /next path, with a published list of what is still missing.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a staged frontend replacement rather than a cutover: two UIs on one web server, a v2 referential API landing in the same release to back the new client, and a hotfix a few hours later for NextUI CSS layers under Tomcat. The backend is simplifying in parallel — RAR5 support moved to plain Java and libarchive was dropped from the Docker image and the tray app, removing a native dependency from the build. Feature work outside the UI stays narrow and format-focused.
◆ Prediction
Expect a run of point releases closing the gaps in NextUI's feature list and hardening the two-UI serving path, with the beta label staying on until parity is reached. A default switch is unlikely before the missing features land.
Paperless-ngx
6.3COLLAB
Paperless-ngx shipped its 3.0 rewrite, then spent a week putting out the fires.
◆ Current state
3.0.0 landed on July 22 after a long beta, carrying both the largest feature set in the project's history and nine breaking changes. The five releases since are pure repair: a broken migration in 3.0.1 that forced an immediate 3.0.2, then three patch rounds covering OCR skipping, permission-filtered dedup, Gotenberg conversion, email date parsing, AI suggestion caching and search index edge cases. The pace tells you 3.0 shipped into real deployments fast.
◆ Where it's heading
The project has moved from a document scanner-and-tagger to a document platform with AI in the core: Paperless AI, remote OCR via Azure, a document parser plugin framework, tantivy replacing Whoosh for search, file versions and sharelink bundles. The breaking changes are the other half of that story — dropping API v1, Python 3.10, document encryption and the old consumer clears the decks for that platform. Recent patches keep touching LLM plumbing, including passing output language into chat and adding docstrings so the classifier reads better as an LLM tool.
◆ Prediction
The 3.0.x patch cadence looks set to run at least another round or two — 3.0.5 is still landing search-compatibility and AI-suggestion fixes rather than tapering. Feature work resuming before that queue empties would be the surprise.
Alternatives to Komga and Paperless-ngx
Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Komga or Paperless-ngx.
AFFiNE
A nightly canary train where the AI platform work hides between dependency bumps
Flame
Self-hosted dashboard that finished its feature arc and stopped shipping in 2023.
CommaFeed
A self-hosted RSS reader that now spends most of its release notes on security.
SiYuan
SiYuan's v3.8.0 train restates one AI feature set across seven consecutive builds.
Jellyfin
Jellyfin renumbers to 12.0 and spends the whole cycle paying down its backend rewrite.
See all Komga alternatives → · See all Paperless-ngx alternatives →
Recent activity from Komga and Paperless-ngx
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoKomgaKomga 1.26.0 ships NextUI, a rewritten web interface, in beta ⚡
- 1d agoKomgaRelease 1.26.1
- 10d agoPaperless-ngxFifth 3.0 patch round: AI cache keying and search date units
- 14d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.4
- 17d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.3
- 18d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.1
- 18d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.2
- 20d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.0 ⚡
- 1mo agoKomgaRelease 1.25.0
- 3mo agoKomgaRelease 1.24.4
- 4mo agoKomgaRelease 1.24.3
- 4mo agoKomgaRelease 1.24.2
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Komga and Paperless-ngx?
Both compete on the same themes — self-hosted — within Collab. Komga and Paperless-ngx are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Komga better than Paperless-ngx?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Komga and Paperless-ngx are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Komga?
Top Komga alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Komga alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/komga for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Paperless-ngx?
Top Paperless-ngx alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Paperless-ngx alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/paperless-ngx for the full list with editorial commentary on each.