Hometown vs Khatru Pyramid
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hometown | Khatru Pyramid |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 8 · At risk |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Unlicense |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 50 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 823 | ★ 33 |
| First released | 2019 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Mastodon, Twitter |
What are Hometown and Khatru Pyramid?
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
Khatru Pyramid
A nostr relay with a invite hierarchy. Contribute to github-tijlxyz/khatru-pyramid development by creating an account on GitHub.
Hometown vs Khatru Pyramid: key differences
Hometown is written in Ruby, while Khatru Pyramid is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Hometown versus Unlicense for Khatru Pyramid. Khatru Pyramid is the lighter option, starting around 50 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Hometown. Hometown is the more established project (first released 2019), while Khatru Pyramid arrived in 2024. Hometown has the considerably larger community, at 823 GitHub stars versus 33. Hometown lists first-class Docker deployment; Khatru Pyramid does not.
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 Khatru Pyramid if…
- Released under the Unlicense license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Hometown or Khatru Pyramid better?
Neither is universally better. Hometown has the larger community, while Khatru Pyramid is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hometown and Khatru Pyramid free and open-source?
Yes. Hometown is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Khatru Pyramid under Unlicense. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hometown and Khatru Pyramid with Docker?
Hometown: yes. Khatru Pyramid: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Hometown or Khatru Pyramid?
Khatru Pyramid has the smaller minimum footprint at 50 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Hometown. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.