Mayan EDMS
The most advanced, scalable, and mature open source document management system
About Mayan EDMS
Mayan EDMS is a free, open source electronic document management system in continuous development since 2010. Self-hosted and built on Python/Django, it provides OCR, document versioning, fine-grained permissions, configurable workflows, and a full REST API, and is trusted by government, NGO, academic, and commercial organizations to manage hundreds of millions of documents. The software is free; Mayan EDMS LLC sells optional support plans and custom contracts.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Completely free and open source software with no license fees, user limits, or document limits
- Exceptionally mature - in uninterrupted active development since 2010 with 10M+ downloads and 100+ contributors
- Proven scalability, handling hundreds of millions of documents daily across hundreds of thousands of installations
- Powerful workflow engine, fine-grained permissions, and full REST API rival commercial enterprise DMS platforms
- Self-hosted deployment gives full data sovereignty - trusted by government, banking, military, and healthcare sectors
- Localized into 30+ languages with strong Docker/Kubernetes deployment support
Cons
- Self-hosted only - there is no official cloud/SaaS edition, so you must run and maintain your own infrastructure
- Steep learning curve; installation and tuning require Docker/Linux expertise
- No free official support - even the self-guided knowledge base costs $9.99/month, and ticket-based support starts at enterprise pricing ($1,099/month)
- Interface is functional but utilitarian compared to modern commercial document management suites
- Advanced deployment topics (Kubernetes, SSO, object storage) are gated behind the paid enterprise support tier
Key Features
Document Versioning
Every document keeps a full version history, so changes can be tracked and earlier versions restored at any time
OCR & Full-Text Search
Built-in optical character recognition extracts text from scanned documents and makes entire archives searchable
Document Workflows
State-based workflow engine automates document approval, review, and routing processes with conditional transitions
Fine-Grained Permissions
Role-based access control lets administrators grant permissions per document, document type, or organizational unit
Metadata & Tagging
Custom metadata types, tags, and cabinets organize documents and drive automatic indexing structures
REST API
Comprehensive REST API exposes the full feature set for integrations and embedding document management into other products
Web-Based Setup
Fully browser-based administration and configuration with a comprehensive settings system - no desktop client required
Massive Scalability
Hundreds of thousands of active installations efficiently manage hundreds of millions of documents per day
30+ Translations
Interface localized into more than 30 languages, supporting international and multilingual deployments
Pricing
- Full open source software
- All features included
- Self-hosted on your infrastructure
- Community resources
- No user or document limits imposed by license
- Full knowledge base access
- Evergreen content
- Articles, tutorials, troubleshooting guides
- Billed with yearly plan
- 5 tickets per month, 1 installation
- Up to 1,000,000 documents and 500 users
- Docker Compose and Kubernetes support
- LDAP/AD/SSO/OIDC and object storage support
- Extended business hours, high priority queue
- Video call support, migrations, disaster recovery
- Business critical, 24/7 support
- Unlimited installations, documents, and users
- Dedicated support specialist
- SLAs and on-site support/training
- Customized features, re-branding, app development
- Relicensing options (Apache 2.0 and others)
Best For
Government Records Management
Local, state, and national government agencies use Mayan EDMS to manage official records with audit trails, retention workflows, and strict role-based access control on sovereign infrastructure.
Compliance-Heavy Industries
Banking, insurance, and aerospace organizations self-host Mayan to keep sensitive documents on-premises while meeting regulatory requirements for versioning, permissions, and traceability.
Going Paperless
Organizations digitize paper archives by scanning documents into Mayan, where built-in OCR makes every page full-text searchable and metadata keeps archives organized.
Embedded Document Management
Software vendors integrate Mayan's REST API - or relicense the codebase - to add enterprise document management capabilities to their own products.
Document Approval Workflows
Teams model review and approval processes as Mayan workflows, automatically routing contracts, invoices, and HR documents through multi-stage sign-off.
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