head to head · open source
Mastodon vs annict
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. annict has 780 stars, 97 forks, 203 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 6,349% (50,299 vs 780 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; annict is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, annict 12%. Mastodon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (social-network), 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
| Mastodon | annict | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 780 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 97 |
| 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 annict if
- You want the annict feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and annict 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 annict
Annict (アニクト) is an AGPL 3.0 licensed, Go based anime viewing record and social networking platform, published as the annict/annict repository and operated in production at annict.com, built for anime watchers who want to find the next title to watch and for the developers who run or contribute to an instance.
read the full annict overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or annict more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and annict has 780. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and annict free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and annict under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and annict?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and annict in Go. 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 annict?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,299 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose annict if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.