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ether/etherpad

📈 Trending★ 18,317TypeScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5ActiveLicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

Self-hosted real-time collaborative document editor with color-coded contributions, full revision history, and no third-party data access.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Etherpad))
    What it does
      Real-time editing
      Revision history
      Color-coded authors
    Features
      Self-hosted control
      100+ languages
      Plugin system
    Use cases
      Secure team docs
      Newsroom collaboration
      Data-sovereign orgs
    Tech stack
      Node.js backend
      Web frontend
      Container ready
    Audience
      Privacy-focused teams
      Institutions
      Self-hosters

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Run a private document collaboration platform for your team without sending data to Google or Microsoft.

USE CASE 2

Build a real-time editing tool for newsrooms or investigative journalists who need data sovereignty.

USE CASE 3

Deploy a multi-language document editor for universities or public institutions with strict data residency requirements.

USE CASE 4

Create a plugin-extended collaborative workspace by installing community plugins for your specific workflow.

Tech stack

TypeScriptNode.jsDockerLinuxmacOSWindows

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Docker required to run; needs to build and start containers before editor is accessible.

Use, modify, and distribute freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you include the original copyright notice and license.

In plain English

Etherpad is a real-time collaborative document editor that you run on your own server. Think of it like Google Docs, but self-hosted, meaning your data never leaves your own infrastructure, and no third-party company has access to your documents. Every character typed in a shared document is instantly visible to all participants, and each contributor's changes are color-coded so you can see at a glance who wrote what. The editor preserves every revision ever made, and a timeline feature lets you scrub back through the entire history of a document change by change. You control whether any AI tools are involved at all; AI support is an optional plugin you configure yourself, pointed at whatever model you choose. Etherpad is translated into over 100 languages and can be extended with hundreds of community-built plugins. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and can be started with a single install command or run via a container image. Organizations including the Wikimedia Foundation, public-sector institutions in the EU, universities, and investigative newsrooms rely on it, particularly those that cannot use US-based cloud services for legal or data-sovereignty reasons. The code is released under the Apache 2.0 open-source license, meaning anyone can freely use, modify, and distribute it.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I install and run Etherpad on my own server using Docker?
Prompt 2
Show me how to create a custom plugin for Etherpad that adds a new feature to the editor.
Prompt 3
How do I enable optional AI features in Etherpad and point them to my own language model?
Prompt 4
What's the best way to back up and restore Etherpad documents and configuration?
Prompt 5
How do I translate Etherpad's interface into a new language or customize existing translations?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.