Language
TypeScriptgithub.com
Language for the whole codebase.
UI library
shadcn/uigithub.com
Component library, built on Radix UI.
Full-stack framework
React Routerdocumenso.com
Web app framework, version 7, after leaving Next.js.
Why: Less magic than Next.js, with explicit routing and logic that is easy to follow.
Database
PostgreSQLdocs.documenso.com
Main database, which also stores documents by default.
Payments
Stripegithub.com
Payments for the cloud plans.
React Emailgithub.com
Builds the email templates.
Styling and UI kit
Tailwind CSSgithub.com
Styles the interface.
Build and runtime
Vitedocumenso.com
Bundles the app and runs the dev server.
Why: Development feels almost instant, and the plugin ecosystem leaves room to tune builds.
ORM
Prismagithub.com
ORM and migrations for the database.
Data fetching
tRPCdocumenso.com
Typed API between the front end and the server.
Why: Server Actions were opaque and hard to track, so they moved those calls to tRPC.
Inngestgithub.com
Runs background jobs through the app's /api/jobs route.
Backend framework
Honogithub.com
HTTP server behind the app.
LibPDFdocumenso.com
In-house TypeScript library that parses, edits and digitally signs PDFs.
Why: No existing JavaScript library covered the full signing workflow, and the Rust signing code was costly to maintain.
Testing
Playwrightgithub.com
End-to-end tests.
Code quality
Biomegithub.com
Linting and formatting.
Analytics
Plausibledocumenso.com
Website analytics, as listed in the privacy policy.
Documenso calls itself the open source DocuSign alternative, and the bet is that trust comes from code anyone can read and from the option to self-host. The code is AGPLv3.
The project ships official Docker images and supports Docker Compose, Railway, Render, Kubernetes and manual installs. Documents are stored in PostgreSQL by default, with S3-compatible storage as an option.
Sources:github.com docs.documenso.com
The app started on Next.js, which the team called a no-brainer for server rendering, easy routing and its community. Over time, Server Actions became hard to debug, builds broke on async chunks, hot reload climbed to about 45 seconds and Turbopack kept failing for them.
In March 2025 they explained the move to React Router (the successor to Remix) with Vite. It was a straight lift and shift with no new features. They now use tRPC where Server Actions used to be.
Sources:documenso.com
Signing touches every part of a PDF's life, and no JavaScript library covered all of it. They used pdf.js for rendering, pdf-lib for editing and a separate Rust library with N-API bindings just for signatures, and kept patching the gaps.
In January 2026 they released LibPDF, a TypeScript library that parses, edits and signs PDFs. It replaced the old Rust signing code, and Documenso already runs it in production.
Sources:documenso.com
The repo is an npm workspace driven by Turborepo. Biome handles linting and formatting, Playwright runs the end-to-end tests, Lingui handles translations and Inngest runs background jobs.
Sources:github.com github.com
Found on the homepage with the open Wappalyzer rules (HTML, scripts and headers). It shows what runs in the browser, not the whole backend.
Checked on 2026-10-29. Every tool links to the public source that shows it.
