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HackMD vs Etherpad: catalog facts
HackMD	Etherpad
Freemium Free to start, with paid plans for teams.	Free Free and open source under the Apache licence. Hosting is separate.
Web	Web, Self-hosted
Real-time collaborative Markdown editing Works in any browser with no install	Authorship colouring and a timeslider through the entire edit history Very light to run, with a large plugin ecosystem
Notes live on a hosted service rather than local files Increasing focus on AI agent features may not suit everyone	Plain text with minimal formatting; it is not a word processor Plugin quality varies and some conflict
Web application	Self-hosted, Web application
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: Apache-2.0
Account 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 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

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