Drift vs bin
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?
Drift
Self-hostable Gist alternative with a clean editor
VS
bin
Minimal, paste-only server written in Rust
| Feature | Drift | bin |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,363 | ★ 308 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | GitHub Gist | Pastebin.com |
Why pick each one
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
Choose bin if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is Drift or bin better?
Neither is universally better. Drift has the larger community, while bin is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Drift and bin free and open-source?
Yes. Drift is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and bin under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Drift and bin with Docker?
Drift: yes. bin: yes.