Ghostbin vs paste
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Ghostbin | paste |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 7 · At risk | 14 · At risk |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 188 | ★ 574 |
| First released | 2014 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist |
What are Ghostbin and paste?
Ghostbin
Ghostbin, whose engine is now called spectre, is a feature-rich, self-hosted pastebin offering syntax highlighting, paste expiration, and optional encryption. It is the open-source software that powered the public Ghostbin service.
- Syntax highlighting
- Optional encryption
- Paste expiration
- Self-hosted control
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
Ghostbin vs paste: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Ghostbin's repository is archived and no longer developed, while paste is actively maintained. Both projects are written in JavaScript. Paste is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Ghostbin. Ghostbin is the more established project (first released 2014), while paste arrived in 2018. Paste has the considerably larger community, at 574 GitHub stars versus 188.
Why pick each one
Choose Ghostbin if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose paste if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Trivial to deploy
Watch out for
- Very minimal feature set
- No syntax highlighting UI
Frequently asked questions
Is Ghostbin or paste better?
paste is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Ghostbin if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Ghostbin and paste free and open-source?
Yes. Ghostbin is licensed under MIT and paste under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ghostbin and paste with Docker?
Ghostbin: yes. paste: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Ghostbin or paste?
paste has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Ghostbin. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.