Lobsters vs vichan
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted forums & community options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Lobsters
Computing-focused link aggregation and discussion site
VS
vichan
Lightweight image board software
| Feature | Lobsters | vichan |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Forums & Community | Forums & Community |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Tinyboard |
| Language | Ruby | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,814 | ★ 770 |
| First released | 2012 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Reddit, Hacker News | 4chan-style boards |
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 vichan if…
- Released under the Tinyboard license
- Written in PHP
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Lobsters or vichan better?
Neither is universally better. Lobsters has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Lobsters and vichan free and open-source?
Yes. Lobsters is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and vichan under Tinyboard. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Lobsters and vichan with Docker?
Lobsters: check the project docs for container support. vichan: check the project docs for container support.