Firefish vs Streams
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Firefish | Streams |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,300 | ★ 100 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Facebook, Mastodon |
What are Firefish and Streams?
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
Streams
Streams is a free, decentralized social communication server that supports nomadic identity, letting accounts move and clone between instances. It federates with the fediverse and offers fine-grained permissions.
- Nomadic identity
- Account cloning across servers
- Fediverse federation
- Granular permissions
Firefish vs Streams: key differences
Firefish is written in TypeScript, while Streams is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Firefish versus MIT for Streams. Streams is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Firefish. Firefish has the considerably larger community, at 1,300 GitHub stars versus 100.
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 Streams if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is Firefish or Streams better?
Firefish is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Streams if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Firefish and Streams free and open-source?
Yes. Firefish is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Streams under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Firefish and Streams with Docker?
Firefish: yes. Streams: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Firefish or Streams?
Streams has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Firefish. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.