Bridgy Fed vs Hometown
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Bridgy Fed
Bridge connecting IndieWeb sites to the fediverse
VS
Hometown
Mastodon fork with local-only posting
| Feature | Bridgy Fed | Hometown |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | Unlicense | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,229 | ★ 819 |
| First released | 2017 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon |
Why pick each one
Choose Bridgy Fed if…
- Released under the Unlicense license
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Choose Hometown if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Ruby
Frequently asked questions
Is Bridgy Fed or Hometown better?
Neither is universally better. Bridgy Fed has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bridgy Fed and Hometown free and open-source?
Yes. Bridgy Fed is licensed under Unlicense and Hometown under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bridgy Fed and Hometown with Docker?
Bridgy Fed: check the project docs for container support. Hometown: yes.