Dolphin vs OpenDataLoader PDF

Side-by-side comparison of two AI agent tools

Short answer

  • Dolphin has had no commit in 6 months; OpenDataLoader PDF is actively maintained (115 commits in the last 90 days).
  • OpenDataLoader PDF is growing faster: +180 GitHub stars in the last 30 days vs +28 for Dolphin.
  • Pick Dolphin for: the official repo for “Dolphin: Document Image Parsing via Heterogeneous Anchor Prompting”, ACL, 2025. Pick OpenDataLoader PDF for: pDF Parser for AI-ready data.

From GitHub data refreshed daily.

The official repo for “Dolphin: Document Image Parsing via Heterogeneous Anchor Prompting”, ACL, 2025.

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PDF Parser for AI-ready data. Automate PDF accessibility. Open-source.

Metrics

DolphinOpenDataLoader PDF
Stars9.1k29.5k
Star velocity /mo28.253968253968253180
Commits (90d)0115
Releases (6m)010
Overall score0.233497012278650080.702008296880007

Pros

  • +Universal document parsing capability that handles both digital and photographed documents seamlessly
  • +Advanced two-stage architecture with document-type-aware parsing strategies optimized for different document formats
  • +Comprehensive 21-element detection including complex elements like formulas, code blocks, and tables with attribute field extraction

    Cons

    • -Research-focused tool that may require significant technical expertise to implement and integrate
    • -Relatively new release with limited production use cases and community feedback
    • -Large model size (3B parameters) may require substantial computational resources for deployment

      Use Cases

      • •Academic research document digitization and content extraction from PDFs and scanned papers
      • •Enterprise document processing for complex reports, invoices, and forms with mixed content types
      • •Automated parsing of technical documentation containing code snippets, mathematical formulas, and diagrams

        FAQ

        Which is more popular, Dolphin or OpenDataLoader PDF?
        OpenDataLoader PDF has more GitHub stars (29,456 vs 9,058).
        Which is more actively developed, Dolphin or OpenDataLoader PDF?
        OpenDataLoader PDF had more commits in the last 90 days (115 vs 0).
        Should I use Dolphin or OpenDataLoader PDF?
        Compare their capabilities, limitations and "best for" notes above. Trying each on a small task is the fastest way to decide.