dpaste vs PrivateBin
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
PrivateBin
Minimalist pastebin with zero-knowledge encryption
| Feature | dpaste | PrivateBin |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 61 · Good | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | MIT | Zlib |
| Language | Python | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 641 | ★ 8,610 |
| First released | 2011 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist | Pastebin.com |
What are dpaste and PrivateBin?
dpaste
dpaste is an open-source pastebin application built with Django for sharing code and text snippets. It offers syntax highlighting, snippet expiration, and a simple API for posting from scripts.
- Django-based platform
- Syntax highlighting
- Snippet expiration
- Scripting API
PrivateBin
PrivateBin is a minimalist, open-source online pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data. Content is encrypted and decrypted in the browser, with options for expiration, password, and burn-after-reading.
- Zero-knowledge encryption
- Burn after reading
- Password protection
- Discussion and expiry options
dpaste vs PrivateBin: key differences
Dpaste is written in Python, while PrivateBin is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for dpaste versus Zlib for PrivateBin. PrivateBin has the considerably larger community, at 8,610 GitHub stars versus 641.
Why pick each one
Choose dpaste if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
Choose PrivateBin if…
- Released under the Zlib license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8.6k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is dpaste or PrivateBin better?
Neither is universally better. PrivateBin has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are dpaste and PrivateBin free and open-source?
Yes. dpaste is licensed under MIT and PrivateBin under Zlib. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run dpaste and PrivateBin with Docker?
dpaste: yes. PrivateBin: yes.