Drift vs Snippet Box
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Drift | Snippet Box |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 18 · At risk | 17 · At risk |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,364 | ★ 1,092 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | GitHub Gist | GitHub Gist, Pastebin.com |
What are Drift and Snippet Box?
Drift
Drift is a self-hostable pastebin and snippet manager that serves as a Gist alternative. It offers multi-file pastes, a polished editor, expiration, and visibility controls.
- Multi-file pastes
- Polished editor
- Visibility controls
- Gist-like experience
Snippet Box
Snippet Box is a self-hosted application for organizing and searching your personal collection of code snippets. It offers syntax highlighting, tagging, and a clean interface for reusing saved code.
- Snippet organization
- Syntax highlighting
- Tag-based search
- SQLite storage
Drift vs Snippet Box: key differences
Both projects are written in TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Drift versus MIT for Snippet Box. Snippet Box is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Drift.
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 Snippet Box if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Drift or Snippet Box better?
Neither is universally better. Drift has the larger community, while Snippet Box is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Drift and Snippet Box free and open-source?
Yes. Drift is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Snippet Box under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Drift and Snippet Box with Docker?
Drift: yes. Snippet Box: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Drift or Snippet Box?
Snippet Box has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Drift. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.