diaspora* vs yarn.social
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?
diaspora*
Privacy-focused decentralized social network
VS
yarn.social
Self-Hosted, Twitter™-like Decentralised micro-logging platform
| Feature | diaspora* | yarn.social |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,656 | — |
| First released | 2010 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Facebook, Twitter | — |
Why pick each one
Choose yarn.social if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Go
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is diaspora* or yarn.social better?
Neither is universally better. diaspora* has the larger community, while yarn.social is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are diaspora* and yarn.social free and open-source?
Yes. diaspora* is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and yarn.social under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run diaspora* and yarn.social with Docker?
diaspora*: yes. yarn.social: check the project docs for container support.