Lobsters vs mlmym
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Lobsters
Computing-focused link aggregation and discussion site
VS
mlmym
Old-Reddit-style alternative front-end for Lemmy
| Feature | Lobsters | mlmym |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Social Networks |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,814 | ★ 287 |
| First released | 2012 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Reddit, Hacker News |
Why pick each one
Choose Lobsters if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Active community (4.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Ruby
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
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 Lobsters or mlmym better?
Neither is universally better. Lobsters 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 Lobsters and mlmym free and open-source?
Yes. Lobsters is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and mlmym under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Lobsters and mlmym with Docker?
Lobsters: check the project docs for container support. mlmym: yes.