SHSelfHostIndex

PrivateBin vs Stikked

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

Not the right match-up?
PrivateBin Minimalist pastebin with zero-knowledge encryption VS ST Stikked Feature-rich PHP pastebin with API and themes
FeaturePrivateBinStikked
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score92 · Excellent14 · At risk
CategoryPastebins & SnippetsPastebins & Snippets
LicenseZlibBSD-3-Clause
LanguagePHPJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 8,610★ 989
First released20122011
ReplacesPastebin.comPastebin.com

What are PrivateBin and Stikked?

PrivateBin

PrivateBin is a minimalist, open-source online pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data. Content is encrypted and decrypted in the browser, with options for expiration, password, and burn-after-reading.

  • Zero-knowledge encryption
  • Burn after reading
  • Password protection
  • Discussion and expiry options

Stikked

Stikked is an open-source PHP pastebin with a wide range of features including syntax highlighting, an API, themes, and spam protection. It has long been a popular choice for self-hosted code sharing.

  • Syntax highlighting
  • Themes and customization
  • API access
  • Spam protection

PrivateBin vs Stikked: key differences

PrivateBin is written in PHP, while Stikked is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — Zlib for PrivateBin versus BSD-3-Clause for Stikked. PrivateBin has the considerably larger community, at 8,610 GitHub stars versus 989.

Why pick each one

Choose PrivateBin if…

  • Released under the Zlib license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 8.6k GitHub stars
PrivateBin details

Choose Stikked if…

  • Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in JavaScript
Stikked details

Frequently asked questions

Is PrivateBin or Stikked better?

Neither is universally better. PrivateBin has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are PrivateBin and Stikked free and open-source?

Yes. PrivateBin is licensed under Zlib and Stikked under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run PrivateBin and Stikked with Docker?

PrivateBin: yes. Stikked: yes.

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