head to head · open source
Buzz vs etherpad
Buzz has 36,686 GitHub stars, 4,869 forks, 3,556 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etherpad has 18,616 stars, 3,060 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Buzz leads on adoption by 97% (36,686 vs 18,616 stars). Buzz is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; etherpad is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Buzz has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, etherpad 16%. Buzz was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Buzz | etherpad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Buzz if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick etherpad if
- You want the etherpad feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and etherpad fits your workflow better
About Buzz
Buzz 🐝 A workspace where humans and agents build together, on a relay you own. Vision · Sovereign · Forge · Agents · Architecture · Releasing · Apache 2.0 People and agents building together in the same room. What is this, really? Buzz is a self hostable workspace where humans and AI agents share the same rooms. A Buzz community is the workspace a user reaches by URL. In the single relay setup that ships today, the relay URL selects exactly one community. A hosted operator can serve many communities behind many domains or subdomains, but the client facing rule stays the same: the URL is authoritative for the…
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Buzz or etherpad more popular?
Buzz has 36,686 GitHub stars and etherpad has 18,616. Buzz has the larger community by that measure.
Are Buzz and etherpad free?
Both are open source. Buzz is licensed under Apache-2.0 and etherpad under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Buzz and etherpad?
Buzz is written in Rust and etherpad 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, Buzz or etherpad?
Choose Buzz if you want the larger community (36,686 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose etherpad if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.