MicroBin vs pasty
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
MicroBin
Tiny, feature-rich pastebin and file-sharing service
VS
pasty
Fast and lightweight code-pasting server
| Feature | MicroBin | pasty |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 84 · Excellent | 46 · Fair |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,563 | ★ 223 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com | Pastebin.com |
What are MicroBin and pasty?
MicroBin
MicroBin is a super tiny, configurable, self-contained pastebin and URL shortener written in Rust. Despite its small size it supports file uploads, encryption, QR codes, and expiring pastes.
- Single small binary
- File uploads and URL shortening
- Optional encryption
- QR code generation
pasty
pasty is a fast and lightweight code-pasting server written in Go. It supports configurable storage backends, paste expiration, and an autodelete feature for ephemeral snippet sharing.
- Fast snippet sharing
- Configurable storage backends
- Paste expiration
- Simple deployment
MicroBin vs pasty: key differences
MicroBin is written in Rust, while pasty is built with Go. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for MicroBin versus MIT for pasty. Pasty is the more established project (first released 2020), while MicroBin arrived in 2022. MicroBin has the considerably larger community, at 4,563 GitHub stars versus 223.
Why pick each one
Choose MicroBin if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.6k GitHub stars)
Choose pasty if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is MicroBin or pasty better?
Neither is universally better. MicroBin has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are MicroBin and pasty free and open-source?
Yes. MicroBin is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and pasty under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run MicroBin and pasty with Docker?
MicroBin: yes. pasty: yes.