Hometown vs Honk
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 | Hometown | Honk |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | ISC |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 819 | ★ 400 |
| First released | 2019 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Mastodon |
Why pick each one
Choose Hometown if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Ruby
Choose Honk if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Hometown or Honk better?
Neither is universally better. Hometown has the larger community, while Honk is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hometown and Honk free and open-source?
Yes. Hometown is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Honk under ISC. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hometown and Honk with Docker?
Hometown: yes. Honk: check the project docs for container support.