head to head · open source
Plane vs etherpad
Plane has 59,546 GitHub stars, 5,776 forks, 1,103 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etherpad has 18,552 stars, 3,050 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Plane leads on adoption by 221% (59,546 vs 18,552 stars). Plane is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; etherpad is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Plane has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, etherpad 16%. Plane 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
| Plane | etherpad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 19K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Plane if
- You weight community size — 60K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 Plane
Plane is an open source project management platform for teams that need to track issues, run cycles, and manage product roadmaps without handing their data to a proprietary SaaS vendor, and it is aimed at engineering, product, and operations teams that would otherwise pay for Jira, Linear, ClickUp, or Asana.
read the full Plane overview →
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 Plane or etherpad more popular?
Plane has 59,546 GitHub stars and etherpad has 18,552. Plane has the larger community by that measure.
Are Plane and etherpad free?
Both are open source. Plane is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and etherpad under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Plane and etherpad?
Plane is written in TypeScript 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, Plane or etherpad?
Choose Plane if you want the larger community (59,546 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.