Stirling-PDF: The 94k-Star Open-Source PDF Platform That Actually Challenges Adobe Acrobat

Description and use

Stirling‑PDF lets teams replace Adobe Acrobat by running a full set of PDF operations on a $4 VPS with REST API and AI integration.

Problem

Teams need a cost‑effective, self‑hosted PDF platform that replaces Adobe Acrobat’s 90% of functionality while keeping documents on-premise.

Outcome

Deploying Stirling‑PDF on a $4 VPS provides a full PDF processing platform comparable to Adobe Acrobat, with 50+ operations, REST API, and AI‑driven automation, all for free up to five users.

Workflow

• 1. Pull the latest Docker image: docker pull docker.stirlingpdf.com/stirlingtools/stirling-pdf:latest
• 2. Create a docker-compose.yml with the provided service definition and volume mounts
• 3. Run docker compose up -d to start the container
• 4. Access the web UI at http://<vps_ip>:8080 and log in with default credentials
• 5. (Optional) Enable MCP by editing config.yaml to set mcp.enabled: true and configure auth
• 6. Use the REST API (e.g., POST /api/v1/misc/compress-pdf) or the Pipeline API to chain operations
• 7. For long jobs, add ?async=true and poll /api/v1/general/job/{jobId}
• 8. Integrate with CI/CD or AI agents via MCP JSON‑RPC tools

Evidence

Stirling‑PDF is a web‑based PDF manipulation platform with three deployment modes: Cloud, Desktop, Server

Source

Deploying on a $4 VPS (Hetzner CX22)

Source

50+ PDF operations. REST API for every tool. MCP server so AI agents can drive it.

Source