Firefish vs Takahe
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Firefish | Takahe |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,300 | ★ 1,172 |
| First released | 2022 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Firefish and Takahe?
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
Takahe
Takahe is an ActivityPub server that can host multiple domains and identities from a single deployment. It is designed for those who want to run several fediverse personas without separate installations.
- Multi-domain hosting
- Multiple identities per user
- Stateless workers
- ActivityPub federation
Firefish vs Takahe: key differences
Firefish is written in TypeScript, while Takahe is built with Python. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Firefish versus BSD-3-Clause for Takahe. Takahe is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Firefish.
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 Takahe if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Firefish or Takahe 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 Takahe free and open-source?
Yes. Firefish is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Takahe under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Firefish and Takahe with Docker?
Firefish: yes. Takahe: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Firefish or Takahe?
Takahe 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.