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.
Not the right match-up?
| Feature | Firefish | Takahe |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ★ 1,174 |
| First released | 2022 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Mastodon |
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.