Repax vs PAQR is a closer match than most head-to-heads on this blog. Both are software you run yourself, both hold your packaging component data, and both produce the signed EU Declaration of Conformity that the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) has required since 12 August 2026.
Where they separate is everything around that document. One of them reaches into your supplier network to fill it in. The other carries the same data into the reports every national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) register asks for afterwards. Below, both sides, one dimension at a time.
Where each platform gets your packaging numbers
A declaration is only as good as the material data underneath it, so the first real question is not which product has more features. It is who is expected to produce the numbers.
PAQR reaches into your supplier network
PAQR pulls components straight in from suppliers already on the platform, described as being able to "instantly access and import packaging components directly from your connected suppliers' databases".
The specifications then stay in sync. When a supplier changes a component property, the change is pushed into your portfolio rather than sitting in an email you never got.
When a component is not there at all, PAQR sends a structured request through its Supplier Request Portal. The supplier fills in a fixed set of fields and the component is frozen from edits on your side while you wait.
The portal also refuses an incomplete submission if a mandatory field is left blank.
Repax reads the catalogue you already have
Repax works the other way round. You build the record from your own catalogue, in four layers that stack, so a product is made of assemblies, an assembly of components, and a component of materials.
Change a material once and every product built on it changes with it.
Getting your catalogue in is a connector job rather than a data-entry job. Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento, a CSV, the REST API, Dinero and e-conomic all feed it.
Be clear about what that means in practice. Repax has no supplier request portal and no shared supplier catalogue. If the reason your declaration is stuck is that four suppliers have not answered your email, that is the exact problem PAQR is built around and Repax is not.
What PAQR is built to do
PAQR launched in May 2026 out of SynoptiCons, an EU company that had been selling EPR compliance and packaging management services since 2019. The product is aimed squarely at one regulation, and the site says so in its own headline, "Packaging Compliance For Every PPWR Milestone".
Five things it genuinely does well, on the evidence of what they publish.
- It goes and gets the data. Supplier catalogues, a request portal, and a supplier-side listing so a packaging manufacturer can publish its own catalogue once instead of answering the same request from ten customers.
- It works out which rules apply to a given pack. Their AI maps packaging to the applicable legislation and standards, pre-checks the ones that apply, and logs the recommendations you discarded plus any standard you added that it did not propose.
- It flags a failure before you sign anything. The Assessment of Conformity report "instantly flags PPWR regulatory failures, such as recyclability rates falling below 70% or exceeding strict heavy metal and PFAS limits".
- It handles the QR code as a real packaging problem. Codes are generated to the GS1 Digital Link standard and PAQR hosts the record behind them, so updating your data updates the live page and the printed artwork stays on shelves.
- It speaks more than one language. The platform and its content run in English, German, Dutch and Spanish, with webinars in three of them, and there is a consulting arm for producers outside the EU that need to reach the European market.
The honest limit is scope. Nothing PAQR publishes describes registering you with a national EPR register, producing a periodic EPR return, or working out scheme fees. Their own material treats EPR as an obligation the regulation carries, not as something the software does.
How Repax splits the work between Core and Declare
Repax puts the same packaging record behind two products that are bought separately, which is why a comparison with a single-purpose tool needs both named.
Declare is the part that meets PAQR head on. It works through Articles 5 to 12 one at a time, recording a verdict per article per packaging type, and it records a not-applicable with the reasoning attached rather than leaving a blank.
The signature is treated as the load-bearing part. A named manufacturer representative signs under Article 39.
Declare then timestamps that signature, links it to the evidence behind each claim, and freezes the PDF at that version.
Retention is set from the same record, five years for single-use packaging and ten for reusable, and the frozen PDFs stay versioned for the full term with an access log against them. The point of all of that is a handover an auditor does not need to ask questions about.
Try Repax Declare for free - no card required Fill in the form, sign it, and get your first declaration. Try it freeTwo limits worth stating plainly. Repax does not collect from your suppliers, as above. And Repax does not submit anything for you, because Core prepares a filing rather than sending it, and Comply, the product that would do the sending, is not live yet.
Where the QR codes overlap and where they do not
Both platforms put a QR code in front of you, and it is worth being precise about them, because one of the codes is the same job on both sides and one of them is not.
Here is what each one describes, in their own published words.
- Both open a hosted page for the declaration. Declare assigns the unique identifier Article 15(5) asks for and resolves the code to a public verification page for that document. PAQR generates "a secure URL, and scannable QR code for every signed DoC", which they describe as instantly shareable with auditors or partners.
- Only PAQR describes a code for the packaging artwork. Theirs is built to the GS1 Digital Link standard, so one code is meant to carry retail scanning and PPWR consumer information together, opening a hosted page of that packaging's material and recycling data.
- Only PAQR describes changing it without reprinting. Because their code points at a live record rather than a fixed page, updating the data updates what a scan shows while the printed pack stays on shelves.
Points two and three are the labelling side of the regulation rather than the paperwork side. That is the code tied to harmonised labelling, and further out to the digital product passport the EU is building on the same underlying data.
So on verifying a declaration these two land in much the same place. The difference is the code that goes on the pack itself, and only PAQR describes selling that.
Deciding a pack conforms and proving you decided it
Conformity is two separate pieces of work. Someone has to reach a verdict, and someone has to be able to show later how that verdict was reached. The two platforms are strong at different halves.
Reaching the verdict
PAQR is the stronger of the two here. It calculates which documents a pack needs from its technical data and its intended use, then tracks how complete your evidence is against that list with a coverage percentage.
On top of that sits the gap analysis, which catches a recyclability rate or a PFAS level over the line before anything gets signed.
Showing how you reached it
Repax is the stronger of the two here. There is a verdict recorded per article rather than a single overall pass, and the reasoning behind a not-applicable is kept rather than discarded.
Every claim then links to its document in the evidence vault, and the whole file sits behind one named person's signature at a fixed timestamp.
Neither of these is a substitute for the other, and neither makes you compliant. Both produce documentation that you remain legally answerable for.
What the packaging data does after the declaration is signed
12 August 2026 was one date. The EPR registers ask for the same packaging weights again every year, in a different shape per country, and that is where the two products stop overlapping.
PAQR does not sell that. Their consulting arm mentions EPR declarations, but only for producers based outside the EU, and it is people rather than software.
Core is built for it. The four-layer record that fed the declaration also produces the report each market wants, and the field names differ market by market.
Denmark asks for packaging category, waste destination and eco-modulation. Italy asks for consortium, typology and contribution. More than 30 EPR categories run off the same catalogue.
One detail matters more than it sounds. Each shipped order locks in the spec as it stood at the moment of sale, so a filing from two years ago still rebuilds exactly.
Set against that, remember the gap named above. Core gets you a finished, market-shaped report and you are still the one who submits it.
Six things that separate the two products
Six things separate these two products in practice. Every cell below comes from what each vendor publishes on their own site, checked in August 2026.
| What you are comparing | Repax | PAQR |
|---|---|---|
| Where the packaging data comes from | Your own catalogue, fed by a webshop, an ERP, a CSV or the API | Your suppliers, through shared catalogues and a request portal |
| How the declaration is built | Articles 5 to 12 attested one by one, signed by a named person under Article 39 | The official template auto-filled from your data and the confirmed legislation |
| What the QR code opens | A public verification page for that declaration | The same for a signed DoC, plus a GS1 Digital Link code for the pack itself |
| EPR reports per market | Yes, from the same record across more than 30 EPR categories | Not part of the software. Offered as consulting for producers outside the EU |
| Who submits to the register | Neither one. Repax Comply would and it is not live yet | Neither one. Filing is not part of the product |
| What you can learn about price | Free, then 29 and 59 euro a month, ex VAT | A tiered model with micro-enterprise tiers, no figure published |
The price you can look up and the price you have to ask for
This is the sharpest practical difference between the two, and it is worth separating from the question of which is cheaper, because those are not the same question.
Repax publishes its numbers. Declare runs free for one real declaration, 29 euro a month for a hundred and 59 euro for five hundred, monthly and ex VAT, with no card needed to start. Core is priced the same way from zero.
PAQR publishes none. There is no pricing page on their site. Their own answer to the question describes "a flexible, tiered pricing model designed to scale with businesses of all sizes" with "specific tiers for micro-enterprises", and there is a free 30-day trial, but no figure anywhere.
That is a difference in how you buy, not proof of a difference in cost. A micro-enterprise tier could easily undercut a published price. What it does mean is that with Repax you can size the bill against your catalogue tonight, and with PAQR you find out on a call.
Which one fits your packaging operation
The useful way to choose between these two is not by feature count. It is by naming which part of your own packaging work is actually broken.
- Your data is sitting with suppliers who will not answer. PAQR. A structured request portal that rejects incomplete replies beats another round of emails, and this is the thing Repax genuinely does not do.
- You make packaging components and your customers keep asking for the same files. PAQR. Listing your catalogue once so customers import it is a supplier-side feature nobody else here sells.
- You need the consumer-facing record printed on artwork. PAQR. GS1 Digital Link codes over a hosted, updatable record is the direct answer to that duty.
- You already hold your own product data and you also report EPR in several markets. Repax. One record covering the declaration and the annual returns is the whole reason Core and Declare share a spine.
- You want to see the product and the price before you talk to anyone. Repax. A free tier, published tiers and no sales call is a real difference at the small end.
- You want the filing itself taken off your desk. Neither, today. PAQR does not sell it and Repax Comply has not shipped, so plan on submitting yourself for now.
Read as a whole, Repax is the better fit for most producers who land on this page. The declaration is one date, and the EPR reporting comes back every year off the same packaging data.
PAQR is the sharper buy where the supplier collection or the consumer record is the thing actually blocking you.
Plenty of producers will also find themselves on both sides of that list. Buying both is a legitimate answer, and it is cheaper to admit that upfront than to expect either product to grow into the other's half of the job.
Frequently asked questions about Repax and PAQR
The questions producers ask most when they are weighing these two against each other.
Does PAQR handle EPR reporting as well as PPWR?
Not as software. Nothing PAQR publishes describes EPR registration, periodic returns or fee calculation. Their consulting arm mentions EPR declarations, but only for producers based outside the EU.
Can Repax collect packaging data from my suppliers?
No. Repax builds the record from your own catalogue through connectors, a CSV or the API. There is no supplier request portal and no shared supplier catalogue, which is the clearest thing PAQR has that Repax does not.
Does either one file my report with the register?
No. PAQR does not sell filing at all, and Repax Core prepares the report but leaves submission to you. Repax Comply is the product built to submit and it has not launched yet.
Which one gives me the QR code PPWR wants on the packaging?
PAQR is the only one describing a code for the pack itself, built to GS1 Digital Link and opening a hosted material and recycling record. Both platforms separately generate a code that opens the signed declaration.
What does PAQR cost?
There is no published price. PAQR describes a tiered model with specific tiers for micro-enterprises and offers a free 30-day trial, but you have to ask for a figure. Repax publishes its tiers from zero euro.
Can I use both products together?
Yes, and for some producers that is the sensible answer. PAQR would handle the supplier collection and the consumer QR record, while Repax would carry the same packaging data into the per-market EPR returns.
