head to head · open source
Lemmy vs Pixelfed
Lemmy has 14,659 GitHub stars, 973 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Pixelfed has 7,134 stars, 895 forks, 116 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lemmy leads on adoption by 105% (14,659 vs 7,134 stars). Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; Pixelfed is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Lemmy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Pixelfed 13%. Lemmy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (activitypub, fediverse), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Lemmy | Pixelfed | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 7.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 973 | ⑂ 895 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lemmy if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Pixelfed if
- You want the Pixelfed feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Pixelfed fits your workflow better
About Lemmy
English Español Русский 汉语 漢語 日本語 Lemmy A link aggregator and forum for the fediverse. Join Lemmy · Documentation · Matrix Chat · Report Bug · Request Feature · Releases · Code of Conduct About The Project Lemmy is similar to sites like Reddit, Lobste.rs, or Hacker News: you subscribe to forums you're interested in, post links and discussions, then vote, and comment on them. Behind the scenes, it is very different; anyone can easily run a server, and all these servers are federated (think email), and connected to the same universe, called the Fediverse. For a link aggregator, this means a user registered on one…
read the full Lemmy overview →
About Pixelfed
Introduction Photo sharing the way it should be. Pixelfed lets your casual shots and creative photography find their audience naturally, without algorithmic barriers. Join millions of people sharing across the fediverse. Official Documentation Documentation for Pixelfed can be found on the Pixelfed documentation website. Run on YunoHost Pixelfed app for YunoHost. See the package source code License Pixelfed is open sourced software licensed under the AGPL license. Communication The ways you can communicate on the project are below. Before interacting, please read through the Code Of Conduct. Mastodon…
read the full Pixelfed overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lemmy or Pixelfed more popular?
Lemmy has 14,659 GitHub stars and Pixelfed has 7,134. Lemmy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lemmy and Pixelfed free?
Both are open source. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Pixelfed under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lemmy and Pixelfed?
Lemmy is written in Rust and Pixelfed in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Lemmy or Pixelfed?
Choose Lemmy if you want the larger community (14,659 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Pixelfed if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.