Etherpad vs Robust 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?
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 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 Robust IRC with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble The Lounge Papercups
Feature Etherpad Robust IRC Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License Apache-2.0 BSD-3-Clause Language TypeScript Go Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 18,481 ★ 195 First released 2011 2020 Replaces Google Docs —
Why pick each one
Choose Robust IRC if… Released under the BSD-3-Clause license Written in Go Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM Robust IRC details
Frequently asked questions Is Etherpad or Robust 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 Robust IRC free and open-source? Yes. Etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Robust IRC under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Etherpad and Robust IRC with Docker? Etherpad: yes. Robust IRC: check the project docs for container support.