Firefish 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 | Firefish | Honk |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | ISC |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,300 | ★ 400 |
| First released | 2022 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Firefish and Honk?
Firefish
Firefish is an open-source, decentralized social media platform built on ActivityPub with extensive interface customization. It includes a built-in post translator, reactions, and a flexible timeline.
- Highly customizable UI
- Post reactions
- Built-in translation
- Federated timelines
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
Firefish vs Honk: key differences
Firefish is written in TypeScript, while Honk is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Firefish versus ISC for Honk. Honk is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Firefish. Honk is the more established project (first released 2019), while Firefish arrived in 2022. Firefish has the considerably larger community, at 1,300 GitHub stars versus 400. Firefish lists first-class Docker deployment; Honk does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Firefish if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Choose Honk if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Firefish or Honk better?
Neither is universally better. Firefish has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Firefish and Honk free and open-source?
Yes. Firefish is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Honk under ISC. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Firefish and Honk with Docker?
Firefish: yes. Honk: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Firefish or Honk?
Honk has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Firefish. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.