fiche vs filite
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | fiche | filite |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 16 · At risk | 6 · At risk |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | C | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,550 | ★ 189 |
| First released | 2015 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com, termbin | Imgur, Pastebin.com |
What are fiche and filite?
fiche
fiche is a minimalist terminal pastebin server written in C that accepts pastes piped over netcat. Users upload text from the command line and receive a short URL with no client software needed.
- Netcat-based uploads
- No client needed
- Short URL output
- Tiny C server
filite
filite is a lightweight, self-hosted alternative to file sharing and pastebin services, written in Rust. It stores uploaded files, shortened links, and code pastes in a single SQLite database and serves them over a minimal HTTP interface.
- Files, links and pastes in one tool
- Single SQLite database
- Rust single-binary server
- Simple HTTP API
fiche vs filite: key differences
Fiche is written in C, while filite is built with Rust. Fiche is the more established project (first released 2015), while filite arrived in 2019. Fiche has the considerably larger community, at 1,550 GitHub stars versus 189. Filite lists first-class Docker deployment; fiche does not.
Why pick each one
Choose fiche if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Choose filite if…
- Very low resource usage
- Combines several sharing tools
Watch out for
- Minimal web interface
- Limited recent activity
Frequently asked questions
Is fiche or filite better?
Neither is universally better. fiche has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are fiche and filite free and open-source?
Yes. fiche is licensed under MIT and filite under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run fiche and filite with Docker?
fiche: check the project docs for container support. filite: yes.