head to head · open source
cobalt vs etherpad
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars, 4,031 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. etherpad has 18,616 stars, 3,060 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 146% (45,722 vs 18,616 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; etherpad is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, etherpad 16%. etherpad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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
| cobalt | etherpad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 19K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Svelte
- 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 cobalt
best way to save what you love cobalt.tools 💬 community discord server 🐦 twitter 🦋 bluesky cobalt is a media downloader that doesn't piss you off. it's friendly, efficient, and doesn't have ads, trackers, paywalls or other nonsense. paste the link, get the file, move on. that simple, just how it should be. cobalt monorepo this monorepo includes source code for api, frontend, and related packages: api tree & readme web tree & readme packages tree it also includes documentation in the docs tree: how to run a cobalt instance how to protect a cobalt instance cobalt api instance environment variables cobalt api…
read the full cobalt overview →
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 cobalt or etherpad more popular?
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars and etherpad has 18,616. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and etherpad free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and etherpad under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and etherpad?
cobalt is written in Svelte 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, cobalt or etherpad?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (45,722 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose etherpad if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.