Honk vs pump.io
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Honk | pump.io |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | ISC | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 400 | ★ 2,237 |
| First released | 2019 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Honk and pump.io?
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
pump.io
pump.io is a stream server that lets users post activities to their followers and to the web, implementing the Activity Streams format. It can be self-hosted as a personal social networking node.
- Activity Streams social server
- Personal social networking node
- Federation support
Honk vs pump.io: key differences
Honk is written in Go, while pump.io is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — ISC for Honk versus Apache-2.0 for pump.io. Honk is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for pump.io. Pump.io is the more established project (first released 2013), while Honk arrived in 2019. Pump.io has the considerably larger community, at 2,237 GitHub stars versus 400.
Why pick each one
Choose Honk if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose pump.io if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Honk or pump.io better?
Neither is universally better. pump.io has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Honk and pump.io free and open-source?
Yes. Honk is licensed under ISC and pump.io under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Honk and pump.io with Docker?
Honk: check the project docs for container support. pump.io: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Honk or pump.io?
Honk has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for pump.io. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.