Stikked 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 | Stikked | paste |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 14 · At risk | 14 · At risk |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 989 | ★ 574 |
| First released | 2011 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist |
What are Stikked and paste?
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
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
Stikked vs paste: key differences
Both projects are written in JavaScript. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Stikked versus MIT for paste. Paste is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Stikked. Stikked is the more established project (first released 2011), while paste arrived in 2018.
Why pick each one
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
Choose paste if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Trivial to deploy
Watch out for
- Very minimal feature set
- No syntax highlighting UI
Frequently asked questions
Is Stikked or paste better?
Neither is universally better. Stikked has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Stikked and paste free and open-source?
Yes. Stikked is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and paste under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Stikked and paste with Docker?
Stikked: yes. paste: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Stikked or paste?
paste has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Stikked. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.