Best Self-Hosted Social network (Fediverse) Tools

4 self-hostable social network (fediverse) tools you can run on your own server — compared on specs, deployment difficulty, and the SaaS each one replaces.

Social network (Fediverse)

GoToSocial

A lightweight ActivityPub social network server written in Go that federates with Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse. It has no built-in posting client beyond a basic web view; you use a Mastodon-compatible app to post.

GoSQLitePostgreSQL

easyRead guide →

Social network (Fediverse)

Lemmy

A Reddit-style link aggregator and discussion forum: users subscribe to communities, post links and discussions, vote and comment. Lemmy instances federate over ActivityPub, so communities can be followed from other Lemmy servers and other Fediverse software.

RustTypeScriptPostgreSQL

moderateRead guide →

Social network (Fediverse)

Mastodon

A decentralized microblogging server built on ActivityPub. Each server runs its own community and federates with other Mastodon and Fediverse servers.

RubyRailsNode.jsPostgreSQLRedis

moderateRead guide →

Social network (Fediverse)

WriteFreely

A minimalist, distraction-free blogging platform for one writer or a whole community. Blogs federate over ActivityPub, so readers on Mastodon and other Fediverse software can follow them.

GoSQLiteMySQL

easyRead guide →

Head-to-heads in this category

Social network (Fediverse)Sep 2026

GoToSocial

vs

Mastodon

One small Go binary for a personal instance vs. the full reference server.

Read the verdict →