Compare software

pdfgrep vs Clapgrep: catalog facts
pdfgrepClapgrep
Free

Free software under the GPL version 2 or later.

Free

Free and open source under the GPL-3.0-or-later licence.

Linux, Command line Linux
  • Familiar grep options such as -r, -i, -n and -c
  • Searches many PDFs at once
  • Searches inside PDF files as well as plain text
  • Searches a whole folder in one pass
  • Command line only
  • Only searches text layers, so scanned PDFs without OCR return nothing
  • Linux only
  • Small project maintained by a single developer
Downloadable app Downloadable app
Open source Open source
License: GPL-2.0-or-later License: GPL-3.0-or-later
No account needed No account needed
Works offline Works offline

Checked October 1, 2026

Checked October 1, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.