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.
| Feature | Bridgy Fed | Hometown |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 79 · Good | 81 · Excellent |
| 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 | ★ 1,238 | ★ 823 |
| First released | 2017 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Bridgy Fed and Hometown?
Bridgy Fed
Bridgy Fed connects personal websites that use IndieWeb standards to the fediverse and the rest of the social web. It translates webmentions and ActivityPub so different networks can interact.
- Connects IndieWeb to fediverse
- Webmention translation
- ActivityPub bridging
- Cross-network interaction
Hometown
Hometown is a friendly fork of Mastodon that adds local-only posting, full-text content support, and other community-oriented features. It is aimed at small, close-knit fediverse instances.
- Local-only posts
- Full-text content
- Mastodon compatibility
- Small-community focus
Bridgy Fed vs Hometown: key differences
Bridgy Fed is written in Python, while Hometown is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — Unlicense for Bridgy Fed versus AGPL-3.0 for Hometown. Bridgy Fed is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Hometown. Bridgy Fed is the more established project (first released 2017), while Hometown arrived in 2019. Hometown lists first-class Docker deployment; Bridgy Fed does not.
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.
Which is lighter on resources, Bridgy Fed or Hometown?
Bridgy Fed has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Hometown. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.