Etherpad vs Spacebar
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 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 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 Spacebar with
choose an app… Chatwoot SimpleX Chat Element Web Spectrum Centrifugo Screego Typebot Berty Mumble The Lounge Papercups Dendrite Synapse Cinny Ergo Revolt Tox Nheko Conduit gomuks InspIRCd Syphon KiwiIRC Dendrite Lite Bonfire Fractal Mumble Web Continuwuity Miaou
Feature Etherpad Spacebar Category Chat & Communication Chat & Communication License Apache-2.0 AGPL-3.0 Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Medium Hard Min. RAM 512 MB 1,024 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source docker, source GitHub stars ★ 18,481 ★ 2,189 First released 2011 2021 Replaces Google Docs Discord
Why pick each one
Choose Spacebar if… Released under the AGPL-3.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Active community (2.2k GitHub stars) Written in TypeScript Spacebar details
Frequently asked questions Is Etherpad or Spacebar better? Etherpad is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Spacebar if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Etherpad and Spacebar free and open-source? Yes. Etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Spacebar under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Etherpad and Spacebar with Docker? Etherpad: yes. Spacebar: yes.