Etherpad vs Session
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 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 Robust IRC 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 Session with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Tinode Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble ejabberd The Lounge Papercups qTox Synapse FluffyChat Quicksy Bridge MongooseIM Toxic Syphon Delta Chat Element X Briar mautrix-signal Chatmail Chatmail Relay SchildiChat Snikket Tigase XMPP Server Wesh Network Metronome IM Monocles Chat Prose
Feature Etherpad Session Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License Apache-2.0 GPL-3.0 Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 256 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source bare-metal, binary, source GitHub stars ★ 18,481 ★ 546 First released 2011 2020 Replaces Google Docs Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram
Why pick each one
Choose Session if… Released under the GPL-3.0 license Written in TypeScript Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM Session details
Frequently asked questions Is Etherpad or Session 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 Session free and open-source? Yes. Etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Session under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Etherpad and Session with Docker? Etherpad: yes. Session: check the project docs for container support.