Alternative to Paperless-NGX reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Impressive-Taste6658 · 2023-11-28 07:57 Hi, I hope this is the right sub for my question :D Some months ago i stumbled across Naperless-NGX here on Reddit and i was hooked by the idea of having all my binders tidy and reduced to the bare minimum. I love the concept of storing all files in one place, setting up some tags and never touch them again unless i need them... Also, the search function which allows searching the content of the pdf's as well as the tags is really nice to have when it comes to searching something within my paperwork. As of right now i don't own any home lab or spare parts i could use to set one up and I'm not much of an it guy, when it comes to docker containers etc. So i don't really so me setting up anything on my own at home. The amount of documents in the average a single person receives during the year as if im not buying that much stuff and don't need to store every receipt i get when buying a pair of pants e.g. Also there is no need for me to access the documents on the go. Now i've got some options that came up to me during the last week on how i might be able to achieve my dream of a cleaner shelf. Option 1: I've heard that there is a way to use a Synology NAS - the ones that support docker - to set up paperless-ngx. Is it easier to set up than buying a let's say RaspberryPi and installing everything on my own? The NASes come with a hefty price tag in my opinion - so I'm not completely hooked. Option 2: I thought about using some software i'm already familiar with to try to store and tag my pdf's similarly paperless-ngx does. I thought about using Obsidian or Zotero as i use both a bit and really want to get more into PKM in Obsidian an need Zotero for my upcoming phd. If i use any of the software mentioned above, i would like to store the files in my onedrive. Has anyone used one of the two to store pdf's similarly? Are they capable enough for what i want? Option 3: Is there any other software service that you can recommend me to take a look at? ​ ​ I'd really appreciate some advice on how to achieve my goal of having all files stored in one place without the need to keep hundreds of physical letters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ariquitaun · 2023-11-28 08:03 My advice to you would be to get a raspberry pi, snacks and a weekend when you don't have any plans ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-28 08:14 The NAS comes with a hefty price tag yes, but it would finally decouple you from the cloud and the internet as a whole and you can finally store all your data in a personal device, rather than a public device. If this is not something you want or need, then even paperless-ngx is wrong for you. What I recommend to people is to get a NAS, store all their personal data in a central location, all their pictures, documents, what not. If they need certain applications, I recommend adding a simple Intel NUC on top of that NAS (all tidy and small and cute). That NUC will store all data on the NAS, and is just the application server running all the needed applications. Last but not least, the whole system will be using the 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule to make sure their personal data is not lost when their house burns down. I’ve installed this dozens of times for tech illiterate and tech savvy people the likes. If you can’t stomach the cost, get everything second-hand, but you have to wait some weeks or month till the device you want is available (depending on the country your live in). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IceOleg · 2023-11-28 08:15 You don't need a separate computer to run Paperless. You can run Paperless as a container on your computer directly, or in a virtual machine. A very light weight alternative is to use [ocrmypdf](https://github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF) to add a text layer to scanned PDFs, and then simply archive them in a neat directory structure (e.g. `//, .pdf`). Its a bit more manual work, but its a matter of minutes for a normal amount of documents. If you are using GNOME or KDE, you will have a document indexer service, which will index the text of PDF files (hence the OCR step). This will let you search your document collection. You do lose the benefit of a bunch of metadata, tags, and the neat interface, but the full text search of your DE goes surprisingly far. I have Paperless in a VM currently, and back up by syncing the export directory structure (which gives what I described above) onto my computer. I will often search for documents with GNOME's search instead of starting up the service VM that I have Paperless in, so I know that the above setup will be fairly searchable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bogdancristiansan · 2023-11-28 10:11 Not really a self hosted case here, but you may want to try running Paperless-NGX on Pikapods. That’s what I do and I’m very happy with this arrangement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dotinho · 2023-11-28 10:20 I agree with that. Down forget one thing, attach one hdd or ssd to your pi, and point docker apps and your user files on the hdd and not on SD card. Don’t forget to make regular backups, some SD cards tend to fail. I use a RPI 3 B+ for 6 years with NextCloud and paperless on external drive, don’t have any problems. And it’s very energy friendly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HTTP_404_NotFound · 2023-11-28 13:37 Go pick up a optiplex micro on ebay. 6th gen intel, or newer. This will cost you around 50-150$ depending on which one you get. Slap a couple NVMes into it, and a 2.5" SSD. Run your docker containers here, including paperless-ngx. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- XTJ7 · 2023-11-28 13:57 Also word of advice: check if the NAS in question has an x86 processor. In case of Synology docker is not available with their lower end ARM options, so if you bought a nice new shiny Synology just to learn it cant do docker, that would really suck. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kitchen_Meaning5345 · 2023-11-28 14:54 This! Or a NUC alternative which has a smaller form factor but less slots fpr disks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PovilasID · 2023-11-28 16:15 Where are you buying OptiPlex's for 50? Get one for 30. I would say look into i3 (more power efficient) and get some cheap budget SSDs or dirt cheap HDD (it will be plenty fast). Because win11 requires TPMs there businesses had to replace office drone email terminals, so there are plates of those getting scrapped. Maybe less, so most probably have been turned to shredded metals. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PovilasID · 2023-11-28 16:18 My solution to this is setup an SFTPgo drive or mount a restic drive and have docspell (alt to paperless with worse UI) to watch for changes. Main advantage of docspell that it consumes files without being destructive to consume folder. Having a network or cloud drive was already the way I stored my files, so I did not need to change much. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-28 16:32 Don't run docker on Synology. As I mentioned, use a compute node for that purpose like an Intel NUC. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceman_Splff · 2023-11-28 16:53 You can run it on a docker container on your main pc. It will only be accessible when your pc is on of course, but look up docker for windows. You could also run a Linux vm in virtual box and have the docker container run on it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HTTP_404_NotFound · 2023-11-28 18:49 Ebay. Also, i3 doesn't really use less power. The -T models will use a lot less power. But, you aren't really going to notice a difference with the i3 models. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/2639vs2627vs2599/Intel-i3-6100T- vs-Intel-i5-6500T-vs-Intel-i5-6500 TDP is the same between them too. For reference, I have 3 micros. i5-9500T, i7-6700, and i5-8500t. They all use pretty much the same 8-12watts of idle power. Also, I generally avoid the pre-6th gen computers. DDR-3, slower, less efficient. i5-6500 is the oldest processors in my lab. And- right now, 50$ is the going-price for M900s / Optiplexes/etc, with an i5-6500t. Although, you can get the i3 models for 30$ or so. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- deano_southafrican · 2023-11-28 21:12 It's really worth considering hosting an instance on a platform like PikaPods which makes it suuuuper easy to setup and you'll have a free subdomain as well so you can access it from anywhere, any time. They have wonderful backup procedures, update procedures, and they're very cheap. Worth considering if you wanna use Paperless but not deal with any of the hassle. Highly recommend. Small note, I host my Paperless instance on my home server so it's local. This is for a few reasons. But I do use PikaPods for Baserow which I use for a few non-critical work things and I love the platform. You get $5 free to try it out with no credit card so you really can't lose anything by trying. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rsaul1031 · 2023-11-28 21:23 A raspberry pi works for this but it has some issues ocring documents so you may want to do that prior to uploading them you can do this with a scanner that has a driver that does one particular is ScanSnap Fujitsu scanners. Another way and it's the way I run it is on an old mini pc I bought from work for cheap running Ubuntu server that works for me. The Raspberry pi from when I tried it I'm not sure though bc even paperless-ngx website recommends doing what I stated as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonteponte71 · 2023-11-28 22:35 Get any Synology plus model (the non-plus ones are too weak to anything other then serving files) and then go to mariushosting and read up on how to specifically do everything you need to run a long list of self-hosted software (on docker) for Synology. There are detailed step-by-step intructions on everything you need, including deploying paperless-ngx on your NAS. If you feel it’s something you will be able to do, just buy it and get started. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonteponte71 · 2023-11-28 22:43 A plus model synology runs docker just fine. It’s a good start if you want to keep it simple with everything in one place. I run 10-15 docker apps, including a couple of heavy ones and I still rarely go over 10% CPU usage in total on my DS918+. If you need to transcode 4K video though, I would agree that a NUC would do a better job. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonteponte71 · 2023-11-28 22:49 That actually looks interesting. At the very least if you want to set something cool up for friends that usually balk at having to buy any hardware whatsoever to host anything :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lannistersstark · 2023-11-29 04:26 Just a minor heads up that TDP doesn't necessarily mean "this is what they consume," but rather the max under sustained load. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thirstythursday00 · 2023-11-29 04:32 This was my first thought too. There’s absolutely no need for a separate computer for paperless, unless you want 24/7 aces from multiple devices. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElevenNotes · 2023-11-29 06:10 It’s not about that, it’s about security and integrity. Any Synology NAS should have no internet access and be locked down as possible as it can be. Running docker on it and connecting the containers on it to the web basically is an invitation for anyone to get to your personal data you store on your NAS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonteponte71 · 2023-11-29 09:37 I don’t have my NAS exposed to the internet and if I had i would secure ir with both a reverse proxy and a VPN of some kind. Probably Tailscale. Synology Photos actually works just fine only connecting to the home wireless , syncing photos and videos from mobile devices. And I would suggest anyone not knowing exactly what they are doing to do the same. I am about to set up a HP Elitedesk mini as a Proxmox server though, so that might become my new docker server and make my home LAN a bit more complex. But up until now it has been just fine being simple and focused. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HTTP_404_NotFound · 2023-11-29 14:11 Understood, but, it was based on my personal experiences between the processors.