Hometown vs Pleroma
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Pleroma
Lightweight fediverse microblogging server
| Feature | Hometown | Pleroma |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Elixir |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 823 | ★ 2,200 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Tumblr |
What are Hometown and Pleroma?
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
Pleroma
Pleroma is a lightweight, free, open-source social networking server compatible with the fediverse. It implements ActivityPub and the Mastodon API while using fewer resources than Mastodon.
- ActivityPub federation
- Mastodon API compatible
- Low resource footprint
- Multiple frontends supported
Hometown vs Pleroma: key differences
Hometown is written in Ruby, while Pleroma is built with Elixir. Pleroma is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Hometown. Pleroma is the more established project (first released 2017), while Hometown arrived in 2019. Pleroma has the considerably larger community, at 2,200 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 Pleroma if…
- Runs on small servers
- Compatible with Mastodon apps
Watch out for
- Smaller community
- Less polished admin tools
Frequently asked questions
Is Hometown or Pleroma better?
Pleroma is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Hometown if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Hometown and Pleroma free and open-source?
Yes. Hometown is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Pleroma under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hometown and Pleroma with Docker?
Hometown: yes. Pleroma: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Hometown or Pleroma?
Pleroma has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Hometown. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.