Social & Fediverse
Federated social platforms and clients built on ActivityPub and the AT Protocol: Mastodon, Lemmy, PeerTube, Pixelfed, Bluesky apps and the servers behind them.
Mastodon
Free, open-source microblogging server that anyone can run; servers interoperate over ActivityPub so accounts on different instances can follow each other. The project site explains the network and helps new users pick a server.
PeerTube
Free software for running a video platform, developed by Framasoft. Instances federate with each other and use peer-to-peer streaming to share bandwidth, and the network hosts hundreds of thousands of videos.
Misskey
Decentralized social networking server from Japan with a highly customizable interface and reactions. The official hub documents how to run a server and lists public instances.
Hubzilla
Fediverse server built around nomadic identity, where a channel can be cloned across hubs. Bundles wikis, webpages, file storage and calendars alongside social posting.
Lemmy
Federated link-aggregator and discussion platform in the style of Reddit. Communities live on independent servers that talk to each other and to the wider fediverse.
Pixelfed
Federated photo-sharing platform built on ActivityPub as an alternative to Instagram. Anyone can run a server, and posts reach followers across the fediverse.
Bluesky
Social app built on the AT Protocol, where account hosting, feeds and moderation services can come from different providers. The flagship app is open source.
AT Protocol
Open protocol behind Bluesky for portable accounts, self-hosted data servers and third-party feeds and apps, with specifications, SDKs and developer guides.
Forgejo
Self-hosted lightweight software forge that is easy to install and low maintenance, developed by the Codeberg community with forge federation in progress.
BookWyrm
Decentralized social network for tracking reading, writing reviews and finding new books, with reviews and shelves visible across federated instances.
Mobilizon
Federated tool from Framasoft for publishing events and organizing groups, where independent sites interconnect instead of forming one large platform.
Mbin
Community-run fork of kbin: a federated content aggregator with voting, threaded discussion and microblogging that federates with Lemmy and Mastodon.
Tangled
Social coding platform on the AT Protocol where repositories are hosted on user-run knots, with stacked pull requests and CI runners called spindles.
Blacksky
Community-run infrastructure and tooling on the AT Protocol, including feeds and moderation services governed by the communities that use them.
Funkwhale
Federated audio platform for hosting personal music libraries, podcasts and artist channels, with sharing between participating servers.
NeoDB
Federated catalog and review service for books, films, music, podcasts and games, where users track what they consume and share reviews.
Castopod
Free and open-source podcast hosting platform with built-in fediverse interaction, so listeners can follow and comment from Mastodon.
Owncast
Self-hosted live streaming server that works with standard streaming software and includes chat, plugins and fediverse notifications.
Sharkey
Fork of Misskey that tracks upstream changes while adding extra features and performance work, with its own instance list and themes.
Bonfire
Modular framework for building community-owned social spaces that connect to the wider open social web on the community's own terms.
sourcehut
Minimal, ad-free software forge offering git repositories, mailing lists, bug tracking and CI, available hosted or self-installed.
Masto.host
Managed hosting service dedicated to running Mastodon servers, handling updates, backups and maintenance for instance owners.
Micro.blog
Hosted blogging service with a built-in community timeline; blogs can be followed from Mastodon and other fediverse software.
Ghost
Open-source publishing platform for blogs and paid newsletters that can be self-hosted and federates posts over ActivityPub.
Akkoma
Lightweight fediverse server forked from Pleroma and aimed at small and mid-sized communities. Speaks the Mastodon-compatible API so most third-party clients work.
Bridgy Fed
Bridge connecting the fediverse, the AT Protocol network behind Bluesky, and personal web sites so people on one network can follow and reply to people on another.
PieFed
Open-source federated forum and link aggregator written in Python, with moderation tooling aimed at healthier communities.
GoToSocial
ActivityPub server written in Go with low resource use and privacy-minded defaults. It ships no built-in web client and is used with standard Mastodon-API apps.
Takahe
ActivityPub server designed for efficient small to medium installs that can host multiple domains on one deployment; described by its authors as beta software.
Bluesky PDS
Official container image, compose file and documentation for running your own AT Protocol Personal Data Server so account data lives on your infrastructure.
Iceshrimp.NET
Rewrite of the Iceshrimp fediverse server in .NET, focused on performance, stability and maintainability. Source and issues live on the project's own forge.
Fedilab
Multi-account Android client that works with Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, Pixelfed and PeerTube, from a developer who maintains several fediverse apps.
Gitea
Self-hosted all-in-one software development service with Git hosting, code review, a package registry and CI/CD.
Radicle
Peer-to-peer code collaboration stack built on Git, where repositories, issues and patches replicate between nodes instead of living on a central forge.
Plume
Federated blogging application written in Rust where authors can publish under shared blogs that federate to Mastodon and other ActivityPub software.
diaspora*
One of the earliest federated social networks, organized around independently run pods and maintained as a privacy-aware distributed social network.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What counts as social & fediverse?
Federated social platforms and clients built on ActivityPub and the AT Protocol: Mastodon, Lemmy, PeerTube, Pixelfed, Bluesky apps and the servers behind them.
What are social & fediverse?
Federated social platforms and clients built on ActivityPub and the AT Protocol: Mastodon, Lemmy, PeerTube, Pixelfed, Bluesky apps and the servers behind them.
Is this hard to set up?
Joining a hosted server or downloading a client is as easy as any app. Running your own server or node takes technical comfort. Listings link to each project's setup docs.