Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

Etherpad is a real-time collaborative document editor that preserves authorship and complete revision history. It runs on your own server and gives you control over what AI tools access your documents. Every keystroke… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Sandstorm-powered “Try a demo” on Etherpad front page launched in 2015; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   Etherpad▲4

   Editor providing collaborative editing in really real-time

   2020 · etherpad.org · its alternatives →

2. 2EM
   Etherpad meets Markdown for a minimal company wiki▲56

   2012 · enterprisewiki.co · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Rustpad, a self-hosted online collaborative text editor▲143

   Efficient and minimal collaborative code editor, self-hosted, no database required - ekzhang/rustpad

   2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

4. 4FA
   Firepad, an open source collaborative text editor▲168

   2013 · firepad.io · its alternatives →

5. 5
   Dune▲630

   Context-aware Mac keypad to automate workflows + meetings

   Apr 2026 · projectmirage.ai · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Reactivepad▲243

   Docs made smart with textually narrated calculations 📝📊

   2018 · reactivepad.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Hackpad▲114

   The simplest way to organize and share knowledge

   2014 · its alternatives →

8. 8CC
   Codr.cc - Etherpad meets Pastebin Meets Notepad.cc: live code sharing▲135

   2011 · codr.cc · its alternatives →

9. 9HI
   HackPad is the best wiki ever▲209

   2012 · hackpad.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    Typed▲526

    Next-generation document editor and collaboration tool

    2022 · typed.do · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Stekpad▲101

    THE alternative to Hackpad: collaborative docs for free

    2017 · stekpad.com · its alternatives →

12. 12
    I am building an open-source Confluence and Notion alternative▲551

    Hello HN, I am building Docmost, an open-source collaborative wiki and documentation software. It is an open-source alternative to Confluence and Notion. I have been working on it for the past 12 months. This is the first public release (beta). The rich-text editor has support for real-time collaboration, LaTex, inline comments, tables, and callouts to name a few. Features - Collaborative real-time editor - Spaces (Teamspace) - User permissions - Groups - Comments - Page history - Nested pages - Search - File attachments You can find screenshots of the product on the website. Website:…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Redirect stdout to EtherPad▲47

    2012 · github.com · its alternatives →

14. 14
    PeerPad▲76

    Realtime P2P collaborative editing tool

    2017 · peerpad.net · its alternatives →

15. 15
    SharePad.io – A collaborative code editor and compiler▲60

    SharePad is a free online code interview tool, it has a real-time collaborative code editor, you can run code with built-in compilers.

    2021 · sharepad.io · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Skypad – Simple and Sharable Real-Time Collaborative Notepad▲49

    Skypad. Contribute to skygear-demo/skypad development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17AE
    An Etherpad clone in Node.js and Socket.io▲40

    2013 · yugentext.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    Polypad▲83

    Scriptable textpad for developers

    2022 · its alternatives →

19. 19
    Paste by FiftyThree for iOS▲336

    Collaborative decks for creative teams

    2017 · its alternatives →

20. 20
    HackMD▲142

    Your Collaborative Markdown Workspace for Knowledge Sharing

    2024 · hackmd.io · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Skilldocs▲192

    I got fed up with Notion, so I built my dream document editor. It's all markdowned so it's easy to view skills or other agent-related documents. It's got the collaboration features I love from Figma (shared cursory and the ability to follow) and Google Docs (comments, realtime editing). Then you can export the diff and comments to an agent. I've been really liking it for talking over skill documents live on a call. I'm curious if this resonates with other people. More generally, I feel like notion is less and less relevant in an age where documents have a very different purpose and Markdown…

    Aug 2026 · skilldocs.dev · its alternatives →

22. 22
    Collaborative Markdown Editor▲83

    Collaborative editor with end-to-end encryption.

    2017 · standardnotes.org · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Markdeck – author cool slides, text-only, offline-ready, collaborative▲235

    presentations as code - author cool slide decks, text-only, offline-ready, collaborative - arnehilmann/markdeck

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    RexPad▲86

    Nimble collaborative note-taking.

    2018 · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →