Etherpad vs Miaou

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?
FeatureEtherpadMiaou
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 18,481★ 553
First released20112014
ReplacesGoogle DocsDiscord, Slack

Why pick each one

Choose Etherpad if…

  • Very mature and stable
  • Highly extensible
Etherpad details

Choose Miaou if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Written in JavaScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Miaou details

Frequently asked questions

Is Etherpad or Miaou 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 Miaou free and open-source?

Yes. Etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Miaou under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Etherpad and Miaou with Docker?

Etherpad: yes. Miaou: check the project docs for container support.

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