Opengist vs Snippet Box
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Opengist
Self-hosted pastebin powered by Git
VS
Snippet Box
Self-hosted app for organizing your code snippets
| Feature | Opengist | Snippet Box |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 17 · At risk |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,353 | ★ 1,092 |
| First released | 2023 | 2021 |
| Replaces | GitHub Gist | GitHub Gist, Pastebin.com |
What are Opengist and Snippet Box?
Opengist
Opengist is a self-hosted pastebin and snippet manager where every snippet is a Git repository. It supports revisions, syntax highlighting, embedding, and access via the web, Git, and an API.
- Git-backed snippets
- Revision history
- Syntax highlighting and embeds
- OAuth login support
Snippet Box
Snippet Box is a self-hosted application for organizing and searching your personal collection of code snippets. It offers syntax highlighting, tagging, and a clean interface for reusing saved code.
- Snippet organization
- Syntax highlighting
- Tag-based search
- SQLite storage
Opengist vs Snippet Box: key differences
Opengist is written in Go, while Snippet Box is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Opengist versus MIT for Snippet Box. Snippet Box is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Opengist. Snippet Box is the more established project (first released 2021), while Opengist arrived in 2023. Opengist has the considerably larger community, at 3,353 GitHub stars versus 1,092.
Why pick each one
Choose Opengist if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.4k GitHub stars)
Choose Snippet Box if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Opengist or Snippet Box better?
Neither is universally better. Opengist has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Opengist and Snippet Box free and open-source?
Yes. Opengist is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Snippet Box under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Opengist and Snippet Box with Docker?
Opengist: yes. Snippet Box: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Opengist or Snippet Box?
Snippet Box has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Opengist. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.