Invidious vs snac
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?
| Feature | Invidious | snac |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | GPL-3.0-only | MIT |
| Language | Crystal | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 50 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 22,442 | ★ 900 |
| First released | 2023 | 2022 |
| Replaces | YouTube | Twitter, Mastodon |
Why pick each one
Choose Invidious if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
- Mature project with 22.4k GitHub stars
- Written in Crystal
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Choose snac if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Invidious or snac better?
Neither is universally better. Invidious has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Invidious and snac free and open-source?
Yes. Invidious is licensed under GPL-3.0-only and snac under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Invidious and snac with Docker?
Invidious: check the project docs for container support. snac: check the project docs for container support.