In simple English
Etherpad is a web-based text editor that lets many people edit the same document at the same time. Every word appears on every screen instantly as it is typed. You can see who wrote what by looking at the coloured highlights on the text. A built-in time slider lets you replay the full history of the document letter by letter. You run it on your own server so no company can read your notes or change the rules.
What it is
Etherpad is a real-time collaborative document editor written in TypeScript and Node.js. It stores document revisions in a database and supports plugins for additional features.
What it is good for
It is good for teams and groups who want to write documents together without relying on third-party cloud services like Google Docs.
- Real-time collaboration shows every keystroke instantly.
- History slider lets you replay how the document grew.
- Self-hosted data stays on your own server.
- Requires Node.js 24 or newer to run.
- Needs a real database like PostgreSQL for production use.
- Default setup has very few features until you install plugins.
Google Docs
PostgreSQL
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curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ether/etherpad/master/bin/installer.sh | sh cd etherpad-lite && pnpm run prod