BinPastes vs Drift
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
BinPastes
Minimal pastebin supporting client-side encryption, fulltext search,
VS
Drift
Self-hostable Gist alternative with a clean editor
| Feature | BinPastes | Drift |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Java | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 18 | ★ 1,363 |
| First released | 2025 | 2022 |
| Replaces | — | GitHub Gist |
Why pick each one
Choose BinPastes if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Written in Java
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Choose Drift if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is BinPastes or Drift better?
Neither is universally better. Drift has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are BinPastes and Drift free and open-source?
Yes. BinPastes is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Drift under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BinPastes and Drift with Docker?
BinPastes: check the project docs for container support. Drift: yes.