head to head · open source
etherpad vs xyne-spaces
etherpad has 18,554 GitHub stars, 3,047 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xyne-spaces has 684 stars, 527 forks, 514 open issues and last shipped today. etherpad leads on adoption by 2,613% (18,554 vs 684 stars). etherpad is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; xyne-spaces is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. etherpad has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, xyne-spaces 77%. xyne-spaces 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
| etherpad | xyne-spaces | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 684 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 527 |
| 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 xyne-spaces if
- You want the xyne-spaces 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 xyne-spaces fits your workflow better
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 →
About xyne-spaces
Xyne Spaces is an open source "AI Org OS" — an Apache 2.0, TypeScript collaboration platform that keeps an organization's context in one permission aware store and serves it back to both people and AI agents, making it a fit for teams that want human and agent work running over the same company knowledge rather than across a dozen disconnected tools.
read the full xyne-spaces overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etherpad or xyne-spaces more popular?
etherpad has 18,554 GitHub stars and xyne-spaces has 684. etherpad has the larger community by that measure.
Are etherpad and xyne-spaces free?
Both are open source. etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and xyne-spaces under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etherpad and xyne-spaces?
etherpad is written in TypeScript and xyne-spaces 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 xyne-spaces?
Choose etherpad if you want the larger community (18,554 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose xyne-spaces if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.