SHSelfHostIndex

Etherpad vs Quassel IRC

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 QU Quassel IRC Distributed IRC client with an always-on core
FeatureEtherpadQuassel IRC
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseApache-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptC++
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 18,481★ 789
First released20112008
ReplacesGoogle DocsSlack

Why pick each one

Choose Etherpad if…

  • Very mature and stable
  • Highly extensible
Etherpad details

Choose Quassel IRC if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Quassel IRC details

Frequently asked questions

Is Etherpad or Quassel IRC 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 Quassel IRC free and open-source?

Yes. Etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Quassel IRC under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Etherpad and Quassel IRC with Docker?

Etherpad: yes. Quassel IRC: yes.

Related comparisons