diaspora* 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 | diaspora* | Hometown |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 81 · Excellent |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,649 | ★ 823 |
| First released | 2010 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Facebook, Twitter | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are diaspora* and Hometown?
diaspora*
diaspora* is a free, open-source, privacy-aware decentralized social network. It is organized into independently operated pods that federate, giving users ownership of their data.
- Federated pod network
- Aspects for sharing control
- Hashtag-based discovery
- Data ownership focus
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
diaspora* vs Hometown: key differences
Both projects are written in Ruby. Diaspora* is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Hometown. Diaspora* is the more established project (first released 2010), while Hometown arrived in 2019. Diaspora* has the considerably larger community, at 13,649 GitHub stars versus 823.
Why pick each one
Choose diaspora* if…
- Strong privacy ethos
- Established network
Watch out for
- Limited fediverse interoperability
- Slower development
Choose Hometown if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Ruby
Frequently asked questions
Is diaspora* or Hometown better?
Neither is universally better. diaspora* has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are diaspora* and Hometown free and open-source?
Yes. diaspora* is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Hometown under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run diaspora* and Hometown with Docker?
diaspora*: yes. Hometown: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, diaspora* or Hometown?
diaspora* has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Hometown. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.