Lemmy vs yarn.social

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options β€” licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureLemmyyarn.social
CategorySocial NetworksSocial Networks
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageRustGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal
GitHub stars★ 14,538β€”
First released20192020
ReplacesRedditβ€”

Why pick each one

Choose Lemmy if…

  • Reddit-like experience
  • Efficient resource use
Lemmy details

Choose yarn.social if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Written in Go
  • Lightweight β€” runs in 512 MB RAM
yarn.social details

Frequently asked questions

Is Lemmy or yarn.social better?

Neither is universally better. Lemmy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Lemmy and yarn.social free and open-source?

Yes. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and yarn.social under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Lemmy and yarn.social with Docker?

Lemmy: yes. yarn.social: check the project docs for container support.

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