Honk 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 | Honk | Khatru Pyramid |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | ISC | Unlicense |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 50 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 400 | ★ 33 |
| First released | 2019 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Mastodon, Twitter |
What are Honk and Khatru Pyramid?
Honk
Honk is an opinionated, single-user ActivityPub server written in Go that federates with the wider fediverse. It deliberately omits algorithmic feeds and trends in favor of a simple chronological timeline.
- Single-user fediverse server
- Chronological timeline
- SQLite storage
- Minimal dependencies
Khatru Pyramid
A nostr relay with a invite hierarchy. Contribute to github-tijlxyz/khatru-pyramid development by creating an account on GitHub.
Honk vs Khatru Pyramid: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — ISC for Honk versus Unlicense for Khatru Pyramid. Khatru Pyramid is the lighter option, starting around 50 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Honk. Honk is the more established project (first released 2019), while Khatru Pyramid arrived in 2024. Honk has the considerably larger community, at 400 GitHub stars versus 33.
Why pick each one
Choose Honk if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Khatru Pyramid if…
- Released under the Unlicense license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Honk or Khatru Pyramid better?
Neither is universally better. Honk has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Honk and Khatru Pyramid free and open-source?
Yes. Honk is licensed under ISC and Khatru Pyramid under Unlicense. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Honk and Khatru Pyramid with Docker?
Honk: check the project docs for container support. Khatru Pyramid: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Honk or Khatru Pyramid?
Khatru Pyramid has the smaller minimum footprint at 50 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Honk. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.