head to head · open source
Buzz vs etherpad
Buzz has 33,508 GitHub stars, 4,389 forks, 3,556 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etherpad has 18,552 stars, 3,050 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Buzz leads on adoption by 81% (33,508 vs 18,552 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 | ★ 34K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Buzz if
- You weight community size — 34K 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 is a self hostable workspace platform where humans and AI agents collaborate in shared rooms, using a single Nostr based event log as the underlying data model. It unifies team chat, project management, and agent automation into one coherent interface, replacing fragmented tools with a unified protocol for events like messages, code patches, CI results, workflow steps, and approvals. Built in Rust and licensed under Apache 2.0, it runs as a single relay deployment per community or as a multi tenant hosted service sharing infrastructure while preserving strict community boundaries.
About etherpad
Etherpad is a real time collaborative document editor, written in TypeScript and released under Apache 2.0, for teams and institutions that need every keystroke attributed to its author, every revision preserved, and all text hosted on infrastructure they control.
read the full etherpad overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Buzz or etherpad more popular?
Buzz has 33,508 GitHub stars and etherpad has 18,552. 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 (33,508 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.