Glitch-soc vs snac
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 | snac |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 803 | ★ 900 |
| First released | 2017 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Glitch-soc and snac?
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
snac
snac is a minimalist, lightweight ActivityPub instance server written in C with very low resource requirements. It implements the core fediverse features without a database or heavy runtime.
- Tiny C implementation
- No database needed
- ActivityPub federation
- Runs on minimal hardware
Glitch-soc vs snac: key differences
Glitch-soc is written in Ruby, while snac is built with C. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Glitch-soc versus MIT for snac. Snac is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Glitch-soc. Glitch-soc is the more established project (first released 2017), while snac arrived in 2022. Glitch-soc lists first-class Docker deployment; snac does not.
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 snac if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Glitch-soc or snac better?
snac is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Glitch-soc if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Glitch-soc and snac free and open-source?
Yes. Glitch-soc is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and snac under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Glitch-soc and snac with Docker?
Glitch-soc: yes. snac: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Glitch-soc or snac?
snac has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Glitch-soc. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.