Khatru Pyramid 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 | Khatru Pyramid | snac |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | Unlicense | MIT |
| Language | Go | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 50 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 33 | ★ 900 |
| First released | 2024 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Mastodon, Twitter | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Khatru Pyramid and snac?
Khatru Pyramid
A nostr relay with a invite hierarchy. Contribute to github-tijlxyz/khatru-pyramid development by creating an account on GitHub.
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
Khatru Pyramid vs snac: key differences
Khatru Pyramid is written in Go, while snac is built with C. Licensing differs — Unlicense for Khatru Pyramid versus MIT for snac. Khatru Pyramid is the lighter option, starting around 50 MB of RAM against 64 MB for snac. Snac is the more established project (first released 2022), while Khatru Pyramid arrived in 2024. Snac has the considerably larger community, at 900 GitHub stars versus 33.
Why pick each one
Choose Khatru Pyramid if…
- Released under the Unlicense license
- Written in Go
- 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 Khatru Pyramid 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 Khatru Pyramid and snac free and open-source?
Yes. Khatru Pyramid is licensed under Unlicense and snac under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Khatru Pyramid and snac with Docker?
Khatru Pyramid: check the project docs for container support. snac: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Khatru Pyramid or snac?
Khatru Pyramid has the smaller minimum footprint at 50 MB of RAM, compared to about 64 MB for snac. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.