Etherpad vs HedgeDoc

Etherpad

• Institutions that must keep drafts on their own servers
• Documents where who wrote what, and when, has to stay visible
• Quick shared note-taking on a public instance
• Developers embedding a collaborative editor in another application

HedgeDoc

• Teams that write in Markdown and keep notes on their own server
• Building and presenting slide decks from Markdown
• Small servers: the project says it runs on a Raspberry Pi

Etherpad

• The project runs no hosted service: you set up a server, which needs git and Node.js 24 or later, or use a public instance run by someone else.
• The core ships small, so comments, tables, images and sign-in through OAuth, LDAP or OpenID all come from plugins.
• The desktop app is a v0 beta, and its repository says the Android app is not on Google Play and the iOS build has not been exercised.
• It is maintained by a small volunteer team, and the site lists no paid support.

HedgeDoc

• There is no hosted service: you install it on your own server, from the release bundle or the Docker image, and put a reverse proxy in front of it.
• PDF export was removed because of security vulnerabilities; the FAQ suggests the browser's print-to-PDF function in the meantime.
• Only one server process can run against a database, so the FAQ rules out running several instances side by side.
• The public demo comes with a warning about its reliability and is meant for trying the editor, not for keeping notes.

Etherpad

Real-time editing with author colors

Several people type in the same pad at once. Every keystroke is attributed to its author and shown in that author's color.

Timeslider history

Every revision is preserved. The timeslider plays a document's history back character by character, and saved revisions can be restored.

Plugins

Hundreds of community plugins add comments, images, tables, drawing, video chat, math, code highlighting and OAuth, LDAP or OpenID authentication.

AI only as an optional plugin

No AI is built in. An administrator can install an AI plugin and point it at a model of their choosing, including a local one, or leave it out entirely.

HTTP API and embedding

An HTTP API with an OpenAPI description manages pads, groups, authors and sessions, and embed parameters control how a pad looks inside another page.

Runs on your own server

Installs on Linux, macOS or Windows with Node.js 24 or later, or from a Docker image, and stores pads in MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, SQLite and other databases.

HedgeDoc

Collaborative Markdown editing

Notes are written in Markdown and edited by several people in real time. Sharing a note's link is all it takes to bring co-workers in.

Presentation mode

Slides are written in Markdown and presented straight from the browser, powered by reveal.js.

Graphs and diagrams

Notes can include many types of graphs and diagrams as well as embedded content, all written inside the Markdown.

Permissions and revisions

Each note's permissions are set from a dropdown, and revisions keep track of changes so a note can be reverted to any older version.

Sign-in options

The documentation has setup guides for LDAP, OAuth and SAML, and for signing in with GitHub, GitLab, Keycloak, Mattermost, Nextcloud, Authelia and Microsoft Entra ID.

Light server requirements

It needs Node.js 20 or later and a PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB or SQLite database, and the project says it runs smoothly on a Raspberry Pi.

Etherpad

• Etherpad$0

  The full editor, installed on your own server, with the plugin system, the HTTP API and built-in data export.

HedgeDoc

• HedgeDoc$0

  The full editor, installed on your own server from the release bundle or the Docker image, with help from the community forum and Matrix chat.