Hometown vs Iceshrimp
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hometown | Iceshrimp |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 823 | ★ 300 |
| First released | 2019 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Hometown and Iceshrimp?
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
Iceshrimp
Iceshrimp is a decentralized, ActivityPub-compatible microblogging server derived from Misskey with a focus on stability and reduced resource use. It offers a familiar fediverse experience with custom emoji and reactions.
- Misskey-compatible features
- Custom emoji reactions
- Lower resource usage
- ActivityPub federation
Hometown vs Iceshrimp: key differences
Hometown is written in Ruby, while Iceshrimp is built with TypeScript. Iceshrimp is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Hometown. Hometown is the more established project (first released 2019), while Iceshrimp arrived in 2023. Hometown has the considerably larger community, at 823 GitHub stars versus 300.
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 Iceshrimp if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Hometown or Iceshrimp better?
Neither is universally better. Hometown has the larger community, while Iceshrimp is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hometown and Iceshrimp free and open-source?
Yes. Hometown is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Iceshrimp under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hometown and Iceshrimp with Docker?
Hometown: yes. Iceshrimp: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Hometown or Iceshrimp?
Iceshrimp has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Hometown. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.