Hometown vs ActivityPub for WordPress
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hometown | ActivityPub for WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 80 · Excellent |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 823 | ★ 583 |
| First released | 2019 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Medium |
What are Hometown and ActivityPub for WordPress?
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
ActivityPub for WordPress
The ActivityPub plugin lets a self-hosted WordPress site federate with the fediverse, so people can follow blog posts from Mastodon and other ActivityPub software. It also delivers comments back as replies.
- Federates WordPress posts
- Follow blogs from Mastodon
- Comments as replies
- Official Automattic plugin
Hometown vs ActivityPub for WordPress: key differences
Hometown is written in Ruby, while ActivityPub for WordPress is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Hometown versus MIT for ActivityPub for WordPress. ActivityPub for WordPress is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Hometown. Hometown lists first-class Docker deployment; ActivityPub for WordPress 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 ActivityPub for WordPress if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in PHP
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Hometown or ActivityPub for WordPress better?
Neither is universally better. Hometown has the larger community, while ActivityPub for WordPress is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hometown and ActivityPub for WordPress free and open-source?
Yes. Hometown is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ActivityPub for WordPress under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hometown and ActivityPub for WordPress with Docker?
Hometown: yes. ActivityPub for WordPress: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Hometown or ActivityPub for WordPress?
ActivityPub for WordPress has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Hometown. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.