dpaste vs paste
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | dpaste | paste |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 61 · Good | 14 · At risk |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Python | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 641 | ★ 574 |
| First released | 2011 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist |
What are dpaste and paste?
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
paste
paste is a minimalist, self-hosted pastebin service written in Go that stores text snippets and returns short URLs. It is designed to be tiny, dependency-free, and easy to run from a single binary.
- Single static binary
- Filesystem-based storage
- Short URL generation
- Simple HTTP API
dpaste vs paste: key differences
Dpaste is written in Python, while paste is built with JavaScript. Paste is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for dpaste. Dpaste is the more established project (first released 2011), while paste arrived in 2018.
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 paste if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Trivial to deploy
Watch out for
- Very minimal feature set
- No syntax highlighting UI
Frequently asked questions
Is dpaste or paste better?
Neither is universally better. dpaste has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are dpaste and paste free and open-source?
Yes. dpaste is licensed under MIT and paste under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run dpaste and paste with Docker?
dpaste: yes. paste: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, dpaste or paste?
paste has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for dpaste. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.