Friendica vs Hometown
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Friendica
Decentralized social network with broad federation
VS
Hometown
Mastodon fork with local-only posting
| Feature | Friendica | Hometown |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 84 · Excellent | 81 · Excellent |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,690 | ★ 823 |
| First released | 2010 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Facebook, Twitter | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Friendica and Hometown?
Friendica
Friendica is a free, open-source decentralized social network. It connects to the fediverse and other networks, offering a Facebook-style experience with groups, photos, and events.
- Federates with many networks
- Groups and forums
- Photo albums and events
- Addon system
Hometown
Hometown is a friendly fork of Mastodon that adds local-only posting, full-text content support, and other community-oriented features. It is aimed at small, close-knit fediverse instances.
- Local-only posts
- Full-text content
- Mastodon compatibility
- Small-community focus
Friendica vs Hometown: key differences
Friendica is written in PHP, while Hometown is built with Ruby. Friendica is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Hometown. Friendica is the more established project (first released 2010), while Hometown arrived in 2019. Friendica has the considerably larger community, at 1,690 GitHub stars versus 823.
Why pick each one
Choose Friendica if…
- Connects to multiple protocols
- Facebook-like experience
Watch out for
- Dated interface
- Smaller user base
Choose Hometown if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Ruby
Frequently asked questions
Is Friendica or Hometown better?
Friendica is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Hometown if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Friendica and Hometown free and open-source?
Yes. Friendica is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Hometown under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Friendica and Hometown with Docker?
Friendica: yes. Hometown: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Friendica or Hometown?
Friendica has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Hometown. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.