Glitch-soc vs Sharkey
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Glitch-soc | Sharkey |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 803 | ★ 600 |
| First released | 2017 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Glitch-soc and Sharkey?
Glitch-soc
Glitch-soc is a community-maintained fork of Mastodon that adds experimental features and customization options ahead of upstream. It federates fully with the rest of the fediverse over ActivityPub.
- Extra customization options
- Experimental features
- Full fediverse federation
- Themeable interface
Sharkey
Sharkey is a feature-rich fork of Misskey that adds quote posts, improved moderation, and additional customization for fediverse instances. It supports a rich timeline with reactions and drive file storage.
- Quote posts and reactions
- Drive file storage
- Extensive customization
- Improved moderation
Glitch-soc vs Sharkey: key differences
Glitch-soc is written in Ruby, while Sharkey is built with TypeScript. Glitch-soc is the more established project (first released 2017), while Sharkey arrived in 2023.
Why pick each one
Choose Glitch-soc if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Ruby
Choose Sharkey if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Glitch-soc or Sharkey better?
Neither is universally better. Glitch-soc has the larger community, while Sharkey is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Glitch-soc and Sharkey free and open-source?
Yes. Glitch-soc is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Sharkey under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Glitch-soc and Sharkey with Docker?
Glitch-soc: yes. Sharkey: yes.