Honk vs snac
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Honk | snac |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | ISC | MIT |
| Language | Go | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 400 | ★ 900 |
| First released | 2019 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Honk and snac?
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
snac
snac is a minimalist, lightweight ActivityPub instance server written in C with very low resource requirements. It implements the core fediverse features without a database or heavy runtime.
- Tiny C implementation
- No database needed
- ActivityPub federation
- Runs on minimal hardware
Honk vs snac: key differences
Honk is written in Go, while snac is built with C. Licensing differs — ISC for Honk versus MIT for snac. Snac is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Honk. Honk is the more established project (first released 2019), while snac arrived in 2022. Snac has the considerably larger community, at 900 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 snac if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Honk or snac better?
Neither is universally better. snac has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Honk and snac free and open-source?
Yes. Honk is licensed under ISC and snac under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Honk and snac with Docker?
Honk: check the project docs for container support. snac: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Honk or snac?
snac has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Honk. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.