Lemmy vs mlmym
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Lemmy | mlmym |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 11 · At risk |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,607 | ★ 287 |
| First released | 2019 | 2023 |
| Replaces |
What are Lemmy and mlmym?
Lemmy
Lemmy is a free, open-source, federated link aggregator and discussion platform. It is a fediverse alternative to Reddit, with communities that federate across instances via ActivityPub.
- Federated communities
- Threaded discussions and voting
- ActivityPub support
- Fast Rust backend
mlmym
mlmym is a lightweight alternative web interface for Lemmy that mimics the classic old.reddit.com design. It connects to any Lemmy instance and renders a fast, minimal experience.
- Old Reddit style UI
- Works with any Lemmy instance
- Very lightweight
- Fast page loads
Lemmy vs mlmym: key differences
Lemmy is written in Rust, while mlmym is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Lemmy versus MIT for mlmym. Mlmym is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Lemmy. Lemmy is the more established project (first released 2019), while mlmym arrived in 2023. Lemmy has the considerably larger community, at 14,607 GitHub stars versus 287.
Why pick each one
Choose Lemmy if…
- Reddit-like experience
- Efficient resource use
Watch out for
- Moderation tooling still maturing
- Fragmented across instances
Choose mlmym if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Lemmy or mlmym better?
Neither is universally better. Lemmy has the larger community, while mlmym is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Lemmy and mlmym free and open-source?
Yes. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and mlmym under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Lemmy and mlmym with Docker?
Lemmy: yes. mlmym: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Lemmy or mlmym?
mlmym has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Lemmy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.