head to head · open source
Mastodon vs Ech0
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ech0 has 2,056 stars, 159 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 2,346% (50,299 vs 2,056 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; Ech0 is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Ech0 8%. Mastodon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (microblog, 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 | Ech0 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 159 |
| 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 Ech0 if
- You want the Ech0 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 Ech0 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 Ech0
Ech0 is an open source, self hosted publishing platform for personal idea sharing. It lives in the open source self hosted microblog ecosystem, using Go and Vue, SQLite storage, and Markdown based posts. The project is built as a lightweight personal microblog, not as a full social network or a team workspace. Ech0 is licensed under AGPL 3.0. It stays lightweight and easy to deploy.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or Ech0 more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and Ech0 has 2,056. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and Ech0 free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Ech0 under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and Ech0?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and Ech0 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 Ech0?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,299 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Ech0 if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.