head to head · open source
Mastodon vs maigret
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. maigret has 37,735 stars, 2,959 forks, 62 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mastodon leads on adoption by 33% (50,299 vs 37,735 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; maigret is written in Python under MIT. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, maigret 8%. Mastodon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Mastodon | maigret | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 38K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mastodon if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick maigret if
- You want the maigret feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and maigret fits your workflow better
About Mastodon
Mastodon is a free, open source, self hosted social network server built on ActivityPub that lets anyone run a microblogging community which interoperates with the wider Fediverse, and it is aimed at individuals, communities, and organisations that want to own their social graph instead of renting it from a platform.
read the full Mastodon overview →
About maigret
Maigret is an open source Python OSINT tool that builds a dossier on a person from a username alone, checking for accounts across more than 3,000 sites without requiring API keys — it is aimed at OSINT analysts, pentesters, infosec teams, and investigators.
read the full maigret overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or maigret more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and maigret has 37,735. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and maigret free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and maigret under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and maigret?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and maigret in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Mastodon or maigret?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,299 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose maigret if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.