Sharkey vs Streams
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Sharkey | Streams |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 600 | ★ 100 |
| First released | 2023 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Twitter, Mastodon | Facebook, Mastodon |
What are Sharkey and Streams?
Sharkey
Sharkey is a feature-rich fork of Misskey that adds quote posts, improved moderation, and additional customization for fediverse instances. It supports a rich timeline with reactions and drive file storage.
- Quote posts and reactions
- Drive file storage
- Extensive customization
- Improved moderation
Streams
Streams is a free, decentralized social communication server that supports nomadic identity, letting accounts move and clone between instances. It federates with the fediverse and offers fine-grained permissions.
- Nomadic identity
- Account cloning across servers
- Fediverse federation
- Granular permissions
Sharkey vs Streams: key differences
Sharkey is written in TypeScript, while Streams is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Sharkey versus MIT for Streams. Streams is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Sharkey. Streams is the more established project (first released 2021), while Sharkey arrived in 2023. Sharkey has the considerably larger community, at 600 GitHub stars versus 100.
Why pick each one
Choose Sharkey if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in TypeScript
Choose Streams if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is Sharkey or Streams better?
Sharkey is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Streams if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Sharkey and Streams free and open-source?
Yes. Sharkey is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Streams under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Sharkey and Streams with Docker?
Sharkey: yes. Streams: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Sharkey or Streams?
Streams has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Sharkey. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.