PrivateBin vs paste
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
PrivateBin
Minimalist pastebin with zero-knowledge encryption
VS
paste
Minimalist self-hosted pastebin written in Go
| Feature | PrivateBin | paste |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 14 · At risk |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | Zlib | MIT |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,610 | ★ 574 |
| First released | 2012 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist |
What are PrivateBin and paste?
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
paste
paste is a minimalist, self-hosted pastebin service written in Go that stores text snippets and returns short URLs. It is designed to be tiny, dependency-free, and easy to run from a single binary.
- Single static binary
- Filesystem-based storage
- Short URL generation
- Simple HTTP API
PrivateBin vs paste: key differences
PrivateBin is written in PHP, while paste is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — Zlib for PrivateBin versus MIT for paste. Paste is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for PrivateBin. PrivateBin is the more established project (first released 2012), while paste arrived in 2018. PrivateBin has the considerably larger community, at 8,610 GitHub stars versus 574.
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
Choose paste if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Trivial to deploy
Watch out for
- Very minimal feature set
- No syntax highlighting UI
Frequently asked questions
Is PrivateBin or paste 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 paste free and open-source?
Yes. PrivateBin is licensed under Zlib and paste under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run PrivateBin and paste with Docker?
PrivateBin: yes. paste: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, PrivateBin or paste?
paste has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for PrivateBin. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.