fiche vs bin
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | fiche | bin |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 16 · At risk | 8 · 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 | ★ 311 |
| First released | 2015 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com, termbin | Pastebin.com |
What are fiche and bin?
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
bin
bin is an extremely minimal pastebin server written in Rust with no database and no configuration. It keeps pastes in memory and is designed to be small, fast, and easy to deploy.
- No database needed
- Tiny memory footprint
- Single binary
- Curl-friendly
fiche vs bin: key differences
Fiche is written in C, while bin is built with Rust. Fiche is the more established project (first released 2015), while bin arrived in 2020. Fiche has the considerably larger community, at 1,550 GitHub stars versus 311. Bin 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 bin if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is fiche or bin 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 bin free and open-source?
Yes. fiche is licensed under MIT and bin under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run fiche and bin with Docker?
fiche: check the project docs for container support. bin: yes.