SHSelfHostIndex

Etherpad vs OTS

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?
ET Etherpad Real-time collaborative document editor VS OT OTS One-Time-Secret sharing platform with a symmetric 256bit AES
FeatureEtherpadOTS
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal
GitHub stars★ 18,481★ 777
First released20112026
ReplacesGoogle Docs—

Why pick each one

Choose Etherpad if…

  • Very mature and stable
  • Highly extensible
Etherpad details

Choose OTS if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Written in Go
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
OTS details

Frequently asked questions

Is Etherpad or OTS 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 OTS free and open-source?

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

Can I run Etherpad and OTS with Docker?

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

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