head to head · open source
Mastodon vs hackertab.dev
Mastodon has 50,465 GitHub stars, 7,536 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hackertab.dev has 775 stars, 93 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 6,412% (50,465 vs 775 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; hackertab.dev is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, hackertab.dev 12%. 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 | hackertab.dev | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 775 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 93 |
| 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 hackertab.dev if
- You want the hackertab.dev 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 hackertab.dev 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 hackertab.dev
Hackertab.dev — All Developer news in one tab! Hackertab makes it easy for you to stay up to date with the latest developer news, tools, jobs and events. As a developer, it can be difficult to stay on top of everything happening in the field. Hackertab makes it easy by allowing you to customize your default tab page to include news, tools and events from top sources such as GitHub Trendings, Hacker News, DevTo, Medium, and Product Hunt. No matter what type of developer you are, you'll find valuable and relevant information with Hackertab. Don't miss out give it a try today! Demo 👉 now.hackertab.dev 👩💻 How to…
read the full hackertab.dev overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or hackertab.dev more popular?
Mastodon has 50,465 GitHub stars and hackertab.dev has 775. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and hackertab.dev free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and hackertab.dev under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and hackertab.dev?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and hackertab.dev 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 hackertab.dev?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,465 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose hackertab.dev if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.