# ether/etherpad

Etherpad: A modern really-real-time collaborative document editor.

Repository: https://github.com/ether/etherpad
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/etherpad
Homepage: https://etherpad.org
Language: TypeScript
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: etherpad, collaboration, web-editor, documents, collaborative, collaborative-editing, collaborative-framework, collaborative-writing, collaborative-research, document, pdf-generation, rich-text-editor, video-conferencing, video-conference, collaborative-ai
Last push: 2026-08-25T15:26:22+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 95, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5639, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 35, "gap_med": 15.0, "n_releases_24m": 27}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 18507, forks 3039 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:26.736867+00:00)

## What it is
Etherpad is a self-hosted, real-time collaborative rich-text document editor where every keystroke is attributed to an author and every revision is preserved. It runs on Node.js, scales to thousands of simultaneous editors per pad, and is extensible through hundreds of plugins including auth, video chat, and AI integrations.

## Use cases
- collaboratively write documents in real time with my team
- self-host a Google Docs alternative with full data ownership
- track who wrote what in a shared document with full revision history
- draft documents with students in a classroom
- co-author research papers with visible authorship
- run a collaborative notepad for a government or public institution
- extend a collaborative editor with plugins for comments, tables, and video chat

## When to choose
- you need provenance and full revision history as a core feature, not an afterthought
- you must self-host and control your data with no telemetry
- you need to scale to thousands of simultaneous editors on one document
- you want a plugin ecosystem for auth (LDAP/OAuth), AI, and media extensions

## When to avoid
- you need a polished offline desktop word processor
- you want a turnkey hosted SaaS with zero server maintenance
- you need heavy layout/print typesetting rather than collaborative drafting

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: http-server, websocket, plugin-system, auth, internationalization, pdf, web-framework
- domain: web-development, developer-tools, self-hosted, real-time, documentation
- platform: self-hosted, cross-platform, windows
- tags: real-time-collaboration, collaborative-editing, rich-text-editor, timeslider, document-history, authorship, video-conferencing, open-data-format, nodejs, web-server, docker, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- ether/etherpad (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:26.736867+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:02:01.830058+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ether/etherpad (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:26.736867+00:00, sha 9c69d64624c5)
  - homepage: https://etherpad.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:03.514315+00:00, sha a02a7ba1cfd5)
  - site_page: https://etherpad.org/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:03.523832+00:00, sha c33cdafe68d8)
  - site_page: https://etherpad.org/plugins (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:03.525888+00:00, sha b8cee934b8db)
  - site_page: https://etherpad.org/doc/v3.3.3/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:03.527821+00:00, sha 420b5869e99d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.