Drift vs Ghostbin
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Drift | Ghostbin |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 18 · At risk | 7 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,364 | ★ 188 |
| First released | 2022 | 2014 |
| Replaces | GitHub Gist | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist |
What are Drift and Ghostbin?
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
Ghostbin
Ghostbin, whose engine is now called spectre, is a feature-rich, self-hosted pastebin offering syntax highlighting, paste expiration, and optional encryption. It is the open-source software that powered the public Ghostbin service.
- Syntax highlighting
- Optional encryption
- Paste expiration
- Self-hosted control
Drift vs Ghostbin: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Ghostbin's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Drift is actively maintained. Drift is written in TypeScript, while Ghostbin is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Drift versus MIT for Ghostbin. Ghostbin is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Drift. Ghostbin is the more established project (first released 2014), while Drift arrived in 2022. Drift has the considerably larger community, at 1,364 GitHub stars versus 188.
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 Ghostbin if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Drift or Ghostbin 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 Drift and Ghostbin free and open-source?
Yes. Drift is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Ghostbin under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Drift and Ghostbin with Docker?
Drift: yes. Ghostbin: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Drift or Ghostbin?
Ghostbin 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.