head to head · open source
Mastodon vs MaterialAbout
Mastodon has 50,465 GitHub stars, 7,536 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MaterialAbout has 1,513 stars, 208 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 3,235% (50,465 vs 1,513 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; MaterialAbout is written in Java under MIT. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, MaterialAbout 14%. 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 | MaterialAbout | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 208 |
| 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 MaterialAbout if
- You want the MaterialAbout feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and MaterialAbout 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 MaterialAbout
Material About This is an Android project. You, as a mobile developer, can use this library to show a material about screen in your apps. It was built to make your life easier when introducing you to your users, and also, to create an about screen pattern for material android apps. It's really simple and dynamic, check it out. Note: If you're missing some feature please let me know. Or even better, create a pull request. Also, I'm needing some help to translate the strings.xml to other languages. Supported Languages: 🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇪🇸 🇮🇹 🇷🇺 🇩🇪 :cn: :tr: 🇺🇦 🇫🇷 🇦🇪 🇰🇷 Sample app This library has a lot…
read the full MaterialAbout overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or MaterialAbout more popular?
Mastodon has 50,465 GitHub stars and MaterialAbout has 1,513. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and MaterialAbout free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MaterialAbout under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and MaterialAbout?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and MaterialAbout in Java. 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 MaterialAbout?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,465 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MaterialAbout if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.