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Lex vs Etherpad: catalog facts
Lex	Etherpad
Freemium You can start writing without paying; paid plan details are not shown on the homepage.	Free Free and open source under the Apache licence. Hosting is separate.
Web	Web, Self-hosted
Clean, distraction-free writing interface AI feedback, rewriting and title suggestions in the editor	Authorship colouring and a timeslider through the entire edit history Very light to run, with a large plugin ecosystem
Web only, with no desktop app mentioned Track changes is not available yet	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
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 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

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