CryptPad vs Etherpad
CryptPad and Etherpad are both office suite software. CryptPad is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 8k GitHub stars. Etherpad is open source under Apache-2.0, with 19k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick CryptPad when
- Confidentiality is the deciding factor and you want shared documents that even the server operator cannot read, either self-hosted or on cryptpad.fr.
- Pick Etherpad when
- You want a self-hosted shared notepad for meetings, drafting or public-sector work where authorship and history matter more than rich formatting.
Side by side
An end-to-end encrypted office suite in the browser with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, kanban and whiteboards, where the server cannot read the content.
A web-based real-time collaborative text editor that colours each author's text, keeps every revision and lets you replay a document's history with a timeslider.
Encryption makes server-side search, recovery of lost keys and integrations harder, and large spreadsheets and documents can feel slower than Google or Microsoft equivalents.
Formatting and layout are basic compared with Google Docs, and the project says it is run by a small volunteer team looking for maintainers.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Self-hosted server
JavaScript, Node.js and OnlyOffice
TypeScript, Node.js and PostgreSQL
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive)
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
8k GitHub stars
19k GitHub stars
Established: started 12 years ago, latest release 2026.10.0.
Established: started 15 years ago, latest release v3.3.13.
Other comparisons
More office suites and document editors
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.