paste vs wastebin
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted pastebins & snippets options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
wastebin
Minimal pastebin server written in Rust
| Feature | paste | wastebin |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 14 · At risk | 82 · Excellent |
| Category | Pastebins & Snippets | Pastebins & Snippets |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 574 | ★ 860 |
| First released | 2018 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Pastebin.com, GitHub Gist | Pastebin.com |
What are paste and wastebin?
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
wastebin
wastebin is a minimal, fast pastebin service backed by SQLite and written in Rust. It offers syntax highlighting, paste expiration, optional encryption, and a tiny resource footprint.
- Tiny resource usage
- SQLite storage
- Syntax highlighting
- Paste expiry and encryption
paste vs wastebin: key differences
Paste is written in JavaScript, while wastebin is built with Rust. Paste is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for wastebin. Paste is the more established project (first released 2018), while wastebin arrived in 2022.
Why pick each one
Choose paste if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Trivial to deploy
Watch out for
- Very minimal feature set
- No syntax highlighting UI
Choose wastebin if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is paste or wastebin better?
Neither is universally better. wastebin has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are paste and wastebin free and open-source?
Yes. paste is licensed under MIT and wastebin under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run paste and wastebin with Docker?
paste: yes. wastebin: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, paste or wastebin?
paste has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for wastebin. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.