Bridgy Fed vs Honk
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 | Honk |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | Unlicense | ISC |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,238 | ★ 400 |
| First released | 2017 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Bridgy Fed and Honk?
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
Honk
Honk is an opinionated, single-user ActivityPub server written in Go that federates with the wider fediverse. It deliberately omits algorithmic feeds and trends in favor of a simple chronological timeline.
- Single-user fediverse server
- Chronological timeline
- SQLite storage
- Minimal dependencies
Bridgy Fed vs Honk: key differences
Bridgy Fed is written in Python, while Honk is built with Go. Licensing differs — Unlicense for Bridgy Fed versus ISC for Honk. Honk is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Bridgy Fed. Bridgy Fed is the more established project (first released 2017), while Honk arrived in 2019. Bridgy Fed has the considerably larger community, at 1,238 GitHub stars versus 400.
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 Honk if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Bridgy Fed or Honk better?
Neither is universally better. Bridgy Fed has the larger community, while Honk is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Bridgy Fed and Honk free and open-source?
Yes. Bridgy Fed is licensed under Unlicense and Honk under ISC. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bridgy Fed and Honk with Docker?
Bridgy Fed: check the project docs for container support. Honk: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Bridgy Fed or Honk?
Honk has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Bridgy Fed. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.