Hometown vs Mastodon
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Mastodon
Decentralized open-source microblogging server
| Feature | Hometown | Mastodon |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 823 | ★ 50,319 |
| First released | 2019 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, X |
What are Hometown and Mastodon?
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
Mastodon
Mastodon is a free, open-source decentralized social network and microblogging server. It is part of the fediverse, federating with other ActivityPub servers so users can follow accounts across instances.
- ActivityPub federation
- Chronological timelines
- Content warnings and moderation tools
- Rich third-party app ecosystem
Hometown vs Mastodon: key differences
Both projects are written in Ruby. Mastodon is the more established project (first released 2016), while Hometown arrived in 2019. Mastodon has the considerably larger community, at 50,319 GitHub stars versus 823.
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 Mastodon if…
- Large fediverse network
- Strong moderation features
Watch out for
- Resource-heavy to host
- Operationally complex
Frequently asked questions
Is Hometown or Mastodon better?
Neither is universally better. Mastodon has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Hometown and Mastodon free and open-source?
Yes. Hometown is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Mastodon under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hometown and Mastodon with Docker?
Hometown: yes. Mastodon: yes.