SHSelfHostIndex

Etherpad vs SAMA

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 SA SAMA Next-Gen self-hosted chat server and clients
FeatureEtherpadSAMA
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseApache-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker
GitHub stars★ 18,481★ 159
First released20112026
ReplacesGoogle Docs—

Why pick each one

Choose Etherpad if…

  • Very mature and stable
  • Highly extensible
Etherpad details

Choose SAMA if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in JavaScript
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
SAMA details

Frequently asked questions

Is Etherpad or SAMA 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 SAMA free and open-source?

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

Can I run Etherpad and SAMA with Docker?

Etherpad: yes. SAMA: yes.

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