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Etherpad vs Lex: catalog facts
Etherpad	Lex
Free Free and open source under the Apache licence. Hosting is separate.	Freemium You can start writing without paying; paid plan details are not shown on the homepage.
Web, Self-hosted	Web
Authorship colouring and a timeslider through the entire edit history Very light to run, with a large plugin ecosystem	Clean, distraction-free writing interface AI feedback, rewriting and title suggestions in the editor
Plain text with minimal formatting; it is not a word processor Plugin quality varies and some conflict	Web only, with no desktop app mentioned Track changes is not available yet
Self-hosted, Web application	Web application
Open source	Closed source
License: Apache-2.0	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.