Etherpad vs InspIRCd
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Etherpad with
choose an app… Plane Chatwoot Focalboard Super Productivity Wekan SimpleX Chat Docs by Suite Numerique OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot CodiMD git-bug Kanboard Berty Mumble Kaneo HedgeDoc ONLYOFFICE Docs The Lounge Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure Soketi Remark42 Isso FreeSWITCH qTox MiroTalk Ferdium FreeScout Telegram Bot API Server Rustpad Asterisk WeeChat Collabora Online Ergo irssi Quicksy Bridge Kamailio Cusdis Tox Stoat AnyCable Chitchatter Live Helper Chat Spacebar Nextcloud Talk Indico RetroShare SIPCAPTURE Homer Vrite Peer-calls mautrix-telegram Routr GlobaLeaks openSIPS mautrix Databag Galène Candy Toxic Hyphanet FusionPBX soju KiwiIRC Glowing Bear Bonfire Pretalx Delta Chat Notifo SimpleX Briar Quassel IRC OTS matrix-commander Mumble Web Comentario LibreOffice Online BitlBee ngIRCd Miaou Session Nextcloud Talk Signaling Server UnrealIRCd MiroTalk C2C matrix-appservice-irc Linphone Chatmail Relay Hookshot Atheme IRC Services Maunium Sticker Picker Spectrum 2 Shhh Gamja Jami Server Bridge Mollysocket Anope PushBits Comm Heisenbridge Slixmpp Ferdium Server Solanum Wesh Network Draupnir baibot matrix-media-repo Charybdis IRCd Zusam Cactus Comments ircd-hybrid Scuttlebutt Room Robust IRC Flexisip SAMA Biboumi Hebbot ircu2 Libervia Jami YunoHost Mail Relay 3CX ARN-Messager Freepbx GNUnet Groupboard MailBag Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Compare InspIRCd with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Element Web Spectrum Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble The Lounge Papercups Dendrite Synapse Cinny Ergo Revolt Tox Nheko Conduit Spacebar gomuks Syphon KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Bonfire Fractal Mumble Web Continuwuity Miaou
Feature Etherpad InspIRCd Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License Apache-2.0 GPL-2.0 Language TypeScript C++ Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 64 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 18,481 ★ 1,338 First released 2011 2002 Replaces Google Docs Slack, Discord
Why pick each one
Choose InspIRCd if… Released under the GPL-2.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Active community (1.3k GitHub stars) Written in C++ InspIRCd details
Frequently asked questions Is Etherpad or InspIRCd better? Neither is universally better. Etherpad has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Etherpad and InspIRCd free and open-source? Yes. Etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and InspIRCd under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Etherpad and InspIRCd with Docker? Etherpad: yes. InspIRCd: yes.