head to head · open source
Mastodon vs hackertab.dev
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hackertab.dev has 772 stars, 95 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 6,415% (50,299 vs 772 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 | ★ 772 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 95 |
| 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
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 hackertab.dev
Hackertab.dev is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, written in TypeScript and licensed under Apache 2.0. It lives in the browser extension ecosystem and is categorized as a community and social networking tool. It changes the default new tab page into a personalized feed for developer news, tools, jobs, and events.
read the full hackertab.dev overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or hackertab.dev more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and hackertab.dev has 772. 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 (50,299 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.