SHSelfHostIndex

Hometown vs Sharkey

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?
HO Hometown Mastodon fork with local-only posting VS SH Sharkey Feature-rich Misskey fork for the fediverse
FeatureHometownSharkey
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
CategorySocial NetworksSocial Networks
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageRubyTypeScript
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 823★ 600
First released20192023
ReplacesTwitter, MastodonTwitter, Mastodon

What are Hometown and Sharkey?

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

Sharkey

Sharkey is a feature-rich fork of Misskey that adds quote posts, improved moderation, and additional customization for fediverse instances. It supports a rich timeline with reactions and drive file storage.

  • Quote posts and reactions
  • Drive file storage
  • Extensive customization
  • Improved moderation

Hometown vs Sharkey: key differences

Hometown is written in Ruby, while Sharkey is built with TypeScript. Hometown is the more established project (first released 2019), while Sharkey arrived in 2023.

Why pick each one

Choose Hometown if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Ruby
Hometown details

Choose Sharkey if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in TypeScript
Sharkey details

Frequently asked questions

Is Hometown or Sharkey better?

Neither is universally better. Hometown has the larger community, while Sharkey is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Hometown and Sharkey free and open-source?

Yes. Hometown is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Sharkey under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Hometown and Sharkey with Docker?

Hometown: yes. Sharkey: yes.

Related comparisons