Perimattic Managed Etherpad - Collaborative Editor on AWS

This AMI runs Etherpad, the open-source real-time collaborative document editor, with PostgreSQL 17 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. The official Etherpad image is pinned to 3.3.15, with PostgreSQL 17.11, and baked into the AMI, so first start does not depend on a registry. Built on the open-source Etherpad (Apache-2.0). Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Etherpad project; product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Why Etherpad?

Etherpad lets several people edit the same document at once and see each other's changes as they type, with author colours, chat, revision history and a time slider. Pads need no account: a pad is a web page that people open from a link.

What Perimattic adds

Closed by default: Etherpad's own model is that anyone who has a pad's link can edit it, and out of the box anyone can create new pads. On a public address that lets strangers store content on your server. This AMI therefore requires a sign-in for every page, pad and live connection. First-login setup generates two random 24-character passwords on your server: one for the shared collaborator account, and one for the administrator who opens the admin pages. Setup then checks that the passwords work, that wrong passwords, the usual defaults and anonymous requests are refused, and that a stranger cannot open or create a pad. The OpenID client secrets that the upstream image ships with fixed default values are replaced with random ones. No password is present in the image.

PostgreSQL: pads are stored in PostgreSQL instead of Etherpad's default single-file database. The database is reachable only inside the Docker network.

HTTPS: Apache is configured as a reverse proxy, including the live-editing WebSocket connection, and a free Let's Encrypt certificate is requested for your domain with certbot. Etherpad listens only on the loopback interface. The version check, plugin catalogue and metrics endpoint are switched off.

Patched base: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS built through an automated EC2 Image Builder pipeline, with security updates applied at build time.

What you should know

All collaborators share one account (user name user and the generated password): Etherpad has no built-in per-person accounts. Anyone who has signed in and knows a pad's name or link can read and edit that pad. You can switch the password requirement off for a link-only server by changing one setting; the instructions are in the credentials file. No plugins are installed.

Etherpad used about 0.45 GB of memory and PostgreSQL about 0.07 GB in our tests, so a t3.small (2 GB) is the recommended starting size; busy servers with many open pads need more.

Licence

Etherpad is released under the Apache License 2.0; this AMI runs the unmodified upstream image. PostgreSQL is released under the PostgreSQL License.

Getting Started Launch the AMI and open ports 22, 80 and 443 in the security group SSH in and answer the setup prompts (domain and admin email) Open https://your-domain , sign in as user with the collaborator password printed at the end of setup, and create a pad Sign in at https://your-domain/admin/  as admin to manage the server

A domain name with an A record pointing at the instance is required, because the site is served over HTTPS.

This AMI is built and supported by Perimattic.

Book a free setup consultation at https://cal.com/gaurav-pareek-perimattic/marketplace-setup-consultations  or email us at aws-support@perimattic.com .

Support Managed and supported by Perimattic, a cloud infrastructure company with 13+ years of experience serving global clients. We offer free setup assistance, custom integrations, infrastructure consulting, and 24/7 support.