Etherpad

A real-time collaborative text editor where every keystroke is attributed to its author and a timeslider replays the full history of a document.

18.6k stars, 3.1k forks TypeScript On GitHub since March 2011

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

What is Etherpad?

Etherpad lets many people edit the same document at once, with each author's text shown in their own color. Every revision is kept, and the timeslider lets you scrub through a document's history character by character. It is light enough to embed in other applications, and a large plugin ecosystem adds formatting, comments, export formats and authentication. Your server is the only server, and you decide whether any AI ever touches the text. The interface is translated into dozens of languages.

Good fit if

  • You run meetings, workshops or classes where many people write at the same time.
  • You need to see exactly who wrote what.
  • You want to embed a collaborative editor in your own platform.

Look elsewhere if

Before you adopt it

Etherpad is Apache-2.0, with no paid parts, and one of the oldest projects in this list, maintained since 2011 by a community foundation. It stores pads in a database such as PostgreSQL.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 30 October 2026. Report a correction

Etherpad health: is it still maintained?

80 of 100, actively developed

  • Activity
    313 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 30 October 2026.
    30 / 30
  • Contributors
    11 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 45% of them.
    14 / 20
  • Releases
    15 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v3.3.12, on 28 October 2026.
    19 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 57% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 4 days.
    12 / 20
  • Security practices
    No OpenSSF Scorecard for this repository yet, so this part gets a neutral score.
    5 / 10

Read from GitHub on 1 November 2026. How the score works

Etherpad license: is it open source?

Etherpad uses Apache-2.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. March 2011First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayApache-2.0.

How to run Etherpad yourself

Docker
Dockerfile or compose file in the repository
Compose file
docker-compose.yml: 2 services (postgres)
Setup effort
2 of 5, judged from the compose file
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
Builds for Linux, including ARM in GitHub releases
Interface languages
73 languages

Install instructions: etherpad.org or the README on GitHub.

Alternatives to Etherpad

  • DocmostDocmost is an open-source collaborative wiki and documentation software. It is an open-source alternative to… 72 health · AGPL-3.0 · 22.2k stars
  • Docs (La Suite)Docs is an open-source text editor: web-native, made for real-time collaboration, cleanly structured… 80 health · MIT · 17k stars
  • HedgeDocHedgeDoc - Ideas grow better together 81 health · AGPL-3.0 · 7.5k stars
  • OverleafA web-based collaborative LaTeX editor 69 health · AGPL-3.0 · 18.3k stars
  • MarkTextA simple and elegant markdown editor, available for Linux, macOS and Windows. 85 health · MIT · 63.4k stars

All 34 projects in Notes & knowledge bases

Questions about Etherpad

Is Etherpad open source?

Yes. Etherpad is published under Apache-2.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Etherpad still maintained?

Its health score is 80 of 100 (actively developed). It had 313 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 30 October 2026, and its latest release came out on 28 October 2026.

How do I run Etherpad?

You can run it with Docker, as an app for Linux, including ARM. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What are the alternatives to Etherpad?

Close alternatives in the Notes & knowledge bases category include Docmost, Docs (La Suite), HedgeDoc.