Mayan EDMS review 2026: an open-source, Django-based document management system with OCR and workflow automation. See features, pricing, pros and cons.
Category
Documents & E-signature
Pricing
Open Source, from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Founded
2010
Headquarters
Puerto Rico, United States
Free PlanAPIOpen SourceSelf-Hosted
Overview
Mayan EDMS is an open-source document management system built to help organizations digitize, index and retrieve large volumes of documents, originally created in 2010 by developer Roberto Rosario to help government agencies handle high volumes of permit and regulatory paperwork.
Built on Python and Django, Mayan EDMS has matured over more than a decade into an enterprise-capable platform that can scale from a small self-hosted install to repositories with hundreds of millions of documents.
Key Features
Documents can be organized using custom metadata fields, color-coded tags and folder-like cabinets rather than a single rigid hierarchy, and built-in OCR powered by Tesseract extracts searchable text from scanned files in over 100 languages, with processing distributable across multiple worker nodes.
An advanced workflow engine tracks document state changes and can trigger automated actions as documents move through business processes, while electronic signature support allows verification of embedded cryptographic signatures and upload of detached signature files.
Pricing
Mayan EDMS is released under the Apache 2.0 open-source license, making it completely free to download, self-host, modify and redistribute with no licensing fees.
Commercial consulting, customization and support services are available from the project's creator for organizations that need paid implementation help, but there is no separate paid software tier.
Key Features
Built-in OCR — Tesseract-powered optical character recognition extracts searchable text from scanned documents in over 100 languages.
Metadata and cabinets — Documents can be classified with custom metadata fields, tags and cabinet-style folders along multiple dimensions.
Document versioning — Tracks and preserves historical versions of documents as they are updated.
Workflow automation engine — Automates business processes by tracking document state and triggering actions on state changes.
Distributed OCR processing — OCR workloads can be distributed across multiple servers for large-scale deployments.
Container-native deployment — Deploys via Docker, Docker Compose or Kubernetes for scalable, repeatable installs.
Full-text search — Searches across document content and metadata to quickly retrieve relevant files.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Completely free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license
Enterprise-scale architecture capable of handling hundreds of millions of documents
Built-in multi-language OCR with distributed processing for large repositories
Flexible metadata and cabinet organization instead of rigid folder hierarchies
Mature project with over a decade of continuous development and a large contributor base
Cons
Requires self-hosting and Django/Docker familiarity to deploy and maintain
No official managed cloud/SaaS offering from the core project
User interface is less polished than commercial DMS platforms like M-Files or DocuWare
Documentation and support rely heavily on community forums outside of paid consulting
Initial setup and configuration can be complex for non-technical teams
Pricing
Open Source Free N/A
Commercial Support (optional) Custom varies
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mayan EDMS free
Yes, Mayan EDMS is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license, with no licensing fees for self-hosted use.
Who created Mayan EDMS
Mayan EDMS was created in 2010 by Roberto Rosario, a software developer and former Director of Software Development for the Government of Puerto Rico.
Does Mayan EDMS support OCR
Yes, it includes built-in OCR powered by the Tesseract engine, supporting text extraction in over 100 languages, with processing that can be distributed across multiple servers.
Can Mayan EDMS automate document workflows
Yes, its workflow engine tracks document state changes and can trigger automated actions as documents move through defined business processes.
How is Mayan EDMS deployed
It is typically deployed using Docker, Docker Compose or Kubernetes, and is built on Python and Django.
Is commercial support available for Mayan EDMS
Yes, commercial consulting, customization and support services are available from the project's creator for organizations that need paid assistance.