Etherpad vs MailBag
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 InspIRCd 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 Mailman3 Mailing List Manager Mlmmj Web Peachpub PrivMX WebMail SIP3 TrueConf Wazo Yeti-Switch
Compare MailBag with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble The Lounge Papercups
Feature Etherpad MailBag Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License Apache-2.0 MIT Language TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 150 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 18,481 — First released 2011 2026 Replaces Google Docs —
Why pick each one
Choose MailBag if… Released under the MIT license Tiny footprint — runs in 150 MB RAM MailBag details
Frequently asked questions Is Etherpad or MailBag 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 MailBag free and open-source? Yes. Etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and MailBag under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Etherpad and MailBag with Docker? Etherpad: yes. MailBag: check the project docs for container support.