Khatru Pyramid vs Takahe
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 | Takahe |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 8 · At risk | 18 · At risk |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | Unlicense | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 50 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 33 | ★ 1,172 |
| First released | 2024 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Mastodon, Twitter | Twitter, Mastodon |
What are Khatru Pyramid and Takahe?
Khatru Pyramid
A nostr relay with a invite hierarchy. Contribute to github-tijlxyz/khatru-pyramid development by creating an account on GitHub.
Takahe
Takahe is an ActivityPub server that can host multiple domains and identities from a single deployment. It is designed for those who want to run several fediverse personas without separate installations.
- Multi-domain hosting
- Multiple identities per user
- Stateless workers
- ActivityPub federation
Khatru Pyramid vs Takahe: key differences
Khatru Pyramid is written in Go, while Takahe is built with Python. Licensing differs — Unlicense for Khatru Pyramid versus BSD-3-Clause for Takahe. Khatru Pyramid is the lighter option, starting around 50 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Takahe. Takahe is the more established project (first released 2022), while Khatru Pyramid arrived in 2024. Takahe has the considerably larger community, at 1,172 GitHub stars versus 33. Takahe lists first-class Docker deployment; Khatru Pyramid does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Khatru Pyramid if…
- Released under the Unlicense license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Choose Takahe if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Khatru Pyramid or Takahe better?
Neither is universally better. Takahe has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Khatru Pyramid and Takahe free and open-source?
Yes. Khatru Pyramid is licensed under Unlicense and Takahe under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Khatru Pyramid and Takahe with Docker?
Khatru Pyramid: check the project docs for container support. Takahe: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Khatru Pyramid or Takahe?
Khatru Pyramid has the smaller minimum footprint at 50 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Takahe. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.