Docling is a free tool that reads documents such as PDFs, Word files, slides and spreadsheets and turns them into clean, structured text. It is aimed at programmers and AI app builders who need document content in a form that AI systems can search and use.
Has 6 of 8 · No commands needed ✗
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does the whole job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
RAGFlow is free software that helps organize documents, such as PDFs and Word files, so AI tools can search and answer questions from them. It is aimed at developers and businesses that want to build AI search over their own files.
Has 3 of 8
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does the whole job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
Haystack is a free Python toolkit for developers who want to build AI applications that search documents, answer questions, and use chatbots or other AI models. It is aimed at programmers building their own AI systems rather than at end users.
Has 2 of 8 · No commands needed ✗
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does part of the job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
Marker is a tool that converts PDFs, images, and office documents such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel into clean markdown, JSON, HTML or text chunks. It is aimed at programmers and IT people who need document text for other software.
Has 3 of 8
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does part of the job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
None of these match. Try another device.
Help me choose
I want to pick an open-source replacement for Vectara. Below is a list from Open Source Everything (CC BY-SA 4.0), in the order its website shows it. The order is a starting point, not a verdict.
- Docling: Docling is a free tool that reads documents such as PDFs, Word files, slides and spreadsheets and turns them into clean, structured text. It is aimed at programmers and AI app builders who need document content in a form that AI systems can search and use. [Advanced setup; Windows · Mac · Linux; replaces fully; MIT; https://github.com/docling-project/docling]
- RAGFlow: RAGFlow is free software that helps organize documents, such as PDFs and Word files, so AI tools can search and answer questions from them. It is aimed at developers and businesses that want to build AI search over their own files. [Advanced setup; Windows · Mac · Linux; replaces fully; Apache-2.0; https://github.com/infiniflow/ragflow]
- deepset: Haystack is a free Python toolkit for developers who want to build AI applications that search documents, answer questions, and use chatbots or other AI models. It is aimed at programmers building their own AI systems rather than at end users. [Advanced setup; runs on a server you set up; replaces partly; Apache-2.0; https://github.com/deepset-ai/haystack]
- Marker: Marker is a tool that converts PDFs, images, and office documents such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel into clean markdown, JSON, HTML or text chunks. It is aimed at programmers and IT people who need document text for other software. [Advanced setup; Mac; replaces partly; Apache-2.0; https://github.com/datalab-to/marker]
Setup rating: "Easy setup" means you can install it like a normal app, use it in a browser. "Advanced setup" means you must run it on your own server or use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Full details: https://opensourceeverything.org/data/groups/rag-tools.json
Before recommending anything, ask me these three questions (one at a time, in plain words): 1) Which device or devices will I use it on (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone)? 2) How comfortable am I with technical setup: only installing apps from a store, happy to follow a step-by-step guide, or comfortable with servers and the command line? 3) What is my budget: free only, or willing to pay for hosting or support? Then recommend one to three projects from this list only, and for each say why, using how fully it replaces the app, its setup rating, and the devices it runs on. If nothing on the list fits me, say so plainly instead of stretching.
Before you build
Read the list of open-source projects at https://opensourceeverything.org/data/groups/rag-tools.json. Compare it with my project or idea below. Tell me which projects overlap, what I could reuse instead of rewriting, and what mine does that none of them do.
My project or idea:
