WHAT IS IT?
Stirling PDF is an open-source platform bundling 50+ tools to manipulate PDF files. Merging, splitting, compressing, OCR, signing, converting, redacting — everything happens locally, without sending your documents to a third-party service. Deployable as a desktop app, web interface or self-hosted server via Docker.
WHY IS IT INTERESTING?
- Privacy by default: all processing happens locally on your machine or server. No file ever leaves your infrastructure.
- 50+ built-in tools: merge, split, rotate, OCR, electronic signatures, conversion (Word, Excel, images), compression, content redaction — virtually every common PDF operation is covered.
- Flexible deployment: desktop application (Windows, Mac, Linux), standalone web interface or Docker container for self-hosting. One tool for every context.
- Full REST API: every tool is exposed via an API, allowing you to integrate PDF processing into your automation pipelines or existing applications.
- No-code workflows: build automated processing chains without writing a single line of code. Perfect for batch processing large document volumes.
- Multilingual interface: 40+ languages supported, making it usable by international teams.
USE CASES
- Automate PDF conversion and merging in a CI/CD pipeline or business workflow
- Replace paid SaaS tools (Adobe Acrobat, Smallpdf) with a self-hosted solution at no recurring cost
- Extract text from scanned PDFs via built-in OCR to feed an internal search engine
- Sign and redact sensitive documents without uploading them to an external cloud service
- Deploy a shared internal PDF service for a team or organization via Docker