SHSelfHostIndex

Plainpad vs Docs by Suite Numerique

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted office suites options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
PL Plainpad Note taking application VS DO Docs by Suite Numerique Collaborative open-source document and wiki editor
FeaturePlainpadDocs by Suite Numerique
CategoryOffice SuitesOffice Suites
LicenseAGPL-3.0-onlyMIT
LanguagePHPPython
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM50 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 422★ 16,708
First released20232024
Replaces—Notion, Google Docs

Why pick each one

Choose Plainpad if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0-only license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in PHP
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Plainpad details

Choose Docs by Suite Numerique if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 16.7k GitHub stars
Docs by Suite Numerique details

Frequently asked questions

Is Plainpad or Docs by Suite Numerique better?

Neither is universally better. Docs by Suite Numerique has the larger community, while Plainpad is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Plainpad and Docs by Suite Numerique free and open-source?

Yes. Plainpad is licensed under AGPL-3.0-only and Docs by Suite Numerique under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Plainpad and Docs by Suite Numerique with Docker?

Plainpad: check the project docs for container support. Docs by Suite Numerique: yes.

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