Managed hosting from
£25/month equivalent +VAT
Small resource profile: 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 10 GB SSD storage. Typically suits a team that processes PDFs in the browser rather than running a document archive. OCR is included; this is not a filing system. Billed hourly against our rate card with no commitments; deployment, upgrades, daily backups, monitoring, SSL and UK hosting included, with no per-user fees. How our pricing works
Coming soon: we are running this on our own systems and measuring it before we open it to customers. The price above is our standard tier ladder until that sizing is finished.
Stop uploading the contract to a website you found
Most PDF "tools" are other people's websites. You drag a board pack, a passport scan or a draft contract onto Smallpdf or iLovePDF, hope their privacy page is true, and download the result. Stirling PDF is the self-hosted version of that toolkit: merge, split, compress, OCR, redact, convert, add a visual signature. We run it on UK hardware we own. The file never leaves your tenant.
PDF tools without the upload
Stirling PDF is a browser app for the jobs people otherwise send to a random website or open Adobe Acrobat for. Merge a pack. Split a scan. Compress something that will not fit an email. Run OCR so a scan becomes searchable. Redact a name before it goes out. Convert an office file to PDF. Stamp a visual signature.
It is not a document archive. It does not replace Paperless-ngx. Paperless keeps the filing cabinet; Stirling is the workbench. Teams that already have Nextcloud or a shared drive still need somewhere honest to do the one-off jobs.
The project is one of the most-starred self-hosted PDF tools on GitHub (about 90,000 stars when we reviewed it in August 2026). The reason people install it is the same reason we host it: the file is confidential, and the alternative is someone else's upload form.
Smallpdf and iLovePDF, without the other party
The file stays here. Smallpdf, iLovePDF and Adobe's cloud process the document on their infrastructure. That is fine for a restaurant menu. It is a bad answer for a client pack, a HR scan or anything covered by a contract that says the file does not leave the UK.
No per-job fee. Acrobat subscriptions and the hosted PDF sites meter seats or tasks. Stirling has no per-file charge. You pay the hosted platform cost, billed against the published rate card.
OCR is in the box. The core image we run includes Tesseract and the office conversion tools. A ten-page scan is a job for the same app, not an add-on SKU.
One URL, every device. A desktop PDF editor has to be installed and licensed per machine. A web tool in the tenant works on a laptop, a tablet and a phone, behind the same sign-in.
What we host, and what we will not ship
We host our verified MIT core build, compiled from exact upstream source. That is a deliberate choice, not a footnote.
Stirling's published container defaults to a proprietary flavour. Native single sign-on, audit and team accounts live in that tree. We do not include it, we do not resell a subscription for it, and we will not flip the pin to the Docker Hub image to "get SSO". If those features matter more than keeping the artefact MIT, this is the wrong product.
Because native SSO is in that tree, our sign-in sits in front of the whole app. A person who is not in your workspace never reaches Stirling. Stirling's own login is off. That also means the API is not a public automation endpoint in this first version: no tokens, no unauthenticated callers. Say so if you need a pipeline; do not assume /api is open.
Working files are temporary. If you need retention, search and a retention policy, that is Paperless-ngx. If you need a legally binding multi-signer workflow, that is Documenso or DocuSeal, not a visual signature stamp.
Sign in is the workspace login, not Stirling's
Your team already has a node.uk account. That is what opens Stirling. Removing someone from the workspace group cuts access immediately, which is the property that actually matters for joiners and leavers. It is a gate in front of the app rather than a login screen inside it, and we would rather say that plainly than call it native SSO.
Who this is for, and who should look elsewhere
For: firms that already refuse to upload client PDFs to a consumer website, and want the same merge/split/OCR/redact toolkit on hardware they can name.
Not for: teams that want a searchable archive (Paperless), a desktop Acrobat replacement with page-layout editing, or machine-to-machine PDF jobs in this first version.
Chris or Matt will tell you which of those you actually have. The contact line is a sizing question, not a brochure closer.
Open source provenance
Stirling PDF
is
MIT (core build)
software maintained upstream
(source, ref v2.14.3).
Node provides managed hosting, configuration and support. We are not the publisher.
- Hosting for paying customers: permitted under this licence.
- Trademark: "Stirling PDF" is a mark of Stirling PDF Inc. House naming rule applies: "Hosting for Stirling PDF" / "we host, configure and support Stirling PDF" only, never "Hosted Stirling PDF", "Managed Stirling PDF", "Stirling PDF Hosting" or "Stirling-PDF-as-a-Service".
Adoption and community
90.8k+ GitHub stars Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF had about 90,000 GitHub stars when we reviewed it in August 2026. It is the usual self-hosted answer to 'I am not uploading this PDF to a random website'.
“I host this at home. I don't use it myself, I can use the linux CLI tools that its based on. But I prefer my wife to use this to convert/split/etc. her pdf files this way instead of using some random website or app.”
Hacker News
“A web service is one thing to maintain that then works on all devices, including mobile. A PDF tool needs to be installed.”
Hacker News
Quotes are from public community discussions, linked to their original sources.
Frequently asked questions
What is a UK-hosted Smallpdf alternative?
Hosting for Stirling PDF. It is a self-hosted web app for merge, split, compress, OCR, redact, convert and a visual signature. We run the MIT core build on UK hardware we own, so the file is processed in your tenant rather than on Smallpdf, iLovePDF or Adobe's cloud.
Is this a document management system like Paperless-ngx?
No. Stirling is the toolkit for the file in front of you. Paperless-ngx is the archive: ingest, OCR, tag, search and retain. If you need both, we host both. Do not buy Stirling expecting a searchable filing cabinet.
Does Stirling PDF replace Adobe Acrobat?
For the jobs people actually open Acrobat to do (merge a pack, split a scan, OCR a scan, redact before sending, convert office files to PDF), yes. It is not a desktop editor and it is not a page-layout tool. If your team lives in InDesign-style editing, this is the wrong product.
How do people sign in?
With the same node.uk workspace account they already use. Stirling's own login is off, and its native single sign-on lives in a proprietary tree we do not ship. Our sign-in sits in front of the whole app, including the API, so a person who is not in your workspace never reaches it.
Can we call the API from other systems?
Not in this first version. The API is behind the same sign-in as the UI, so unauthenticated automation and API tokens are unsupported. If you need a machine-to-machine PDF pipeline, say so and we will tell you whether a later carve-out is on the table or whether you should keep using CLI tools.
Which edition do you host?
The MIT core build only, compiled from exact upstream source. Stirling's published Docker image defaults to a proprietary flavour that includes paid SSO, audit and team-account code. We do not ship that. OCR and office conversion stay in the core image we run.
Where are the files processed?
On Node's UK hardware, in your tenant. Uploads are working files for the job, not a long-term archive. Nightly backups cover the instance; they are not a substitute for keeping the finished PDF where it belongs.
Smallpdf alternative, hosted in the UK
What do you do with PDFs today: merge a pack, OCR a scan, redact before you send? An engineer will say whether Stirling fits, or whether you actually want Paperless, and what it costs to run here.