head to head · open source
Mastodon vs databag
Mastodon has 50,465 GitHub stars, 7,536 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. databag has 1,510 stars, 100 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 3,242% (50,465 vs 1,510 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; databag is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, databag 7%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Mastodon | databag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-06-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 100 |
| 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 databag if
- You want the databag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and databag fits your workflow better
About Mastodon
[!NOTE] Want to learn more about Mastodon? Click below to find out more in a video. Mastodon is a free, open source social network server based on ActivityPub where users can follow friends and discover new ones. On Mastodon, users can publish anything they want: links, pictures, text, and video. All Mastodon servers are interoperable as a federated network (users on one server can seamlessly communicate with users from another one, including non Mastodon software that implements ActivityPub!) Navigation Project homepage 🐘 Donate to support development 🎁 View sponsors Blog 📰 Documentation 📚 Official…
read the full Mastodon overview →
About databag
Databag A federated messenger for self hosting Design Overview Mobile and Browser App Screens Databag is designed for efficiency, consuming minimal hosting resources. Notable features include: Decentralized (direct communication between app and server node) Federated (accounts on different nodes can communicate) Public Private key based identity (not bound to any blockchain or hosting domain) End to End encryption (the hosting admin cannot view topics if sealed) Audio and Video Calls (nat traversal requires separate relay server) Topic based threads (messages organized by topic not contacts) Unlimited…
read the full databag overview →
More in Community & Social
Related comparisons
More Social Networking projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Social Networking field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or databag more popular?
Mastodon has 50,465 GitHub stars and databag has 1,510. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and databag free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and databag under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and databag?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and databag in TypeScript. 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 databag?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,465 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose databag if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.