head to head · open source
etherpad vs blocksuite
etherpad has 18,617 GitHub stars, 3,060 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. blocksuite has 6,082 stars, 565 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. etherpad leads on adoption by 206% (18,617 vs 6,082 stars). etherpad is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; blocksuite is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0. etherpad has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, blocksuite 9%. etherpad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (collaboration, rich-text-editor), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| etherpad | blocksuite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 565 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick etherpad if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick blocksuite if
- You want the blocksuite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and blocksuite fits your workflow better
About etherpad
Etherpad — the editor for documents that matter Real time collaborative editing where authorship is the default, your server is the only server, and you decide what AI (if any) ever touches your text. About Etherpad is a real time collaborative editor for documents that matter. Every keystroke is attributed to its author. Every revision is preserved. The timeslider lets you scrub through a document's entire history, character by character. Author colours make collaboration visible at a glance — not buried in a menu. Etherpad runs on your server, under your governance. No telemetry. No upsells. AI is a plugin you…
read the full etherpad overview →
About blocksuite
BlockSuite Overview People who are really serious about editor should make their own framework. BlockSuite is a toolkit for building editors and collaborative applications. It implements a series of content editing infrastructures, UI components and editors independently. You can consider BlockSuite as a UI component library for building various editors, based on a minimized vanilla framework as their runtime. With BlockSuite, you can: Reuse multiple first party BlockSuite editors: PageEditor : A comprehensive block based document editor, offering extensive customization and flexibility. EdgelessEditor : A…
read the full blocksuite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etherpad or blocksuite more popular?
etherpad has 18,617 GitHub stars and blocksuite has 6,082. etherpad has the larger community by that measure.
Are etherpad and blocksuite free?
Both are open source. etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and blocksuite under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etherpad and blocksuite?
etherpad is written in TypeScript and blocksuite in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, etherpad or blocksuite?
Choose etherpad if you want the larger community (18,617 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose blocksuite if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.