head to head · open source
Mastodon vs Pixelfed
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Pixelfed has 7,102 stars, 880 forks, 116 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mastodon leads on adoption by 608% (50,299 vs 7,102 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; Pixelfed is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Pixelfed 12%. Mastodon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (activitypub, fediverse, 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 | Pixelfed | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 7.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 880 |
| 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 Pixelfed if
- You want the Pixelfed feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Pixelfed 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 Pixelfed
Pixelfed is an open source, ad free photo sharing platform written in PHP and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It is built on the Laravel framework and lives in the fediverse, the federated social web, communicating with other servers through the ActivityPub protocol. The project describes itself as photo sharing "the way it should be," letting casual shots and creative photography find an audience without algorithmic barriers.
read the full Pixelfed overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or Pixelfed more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and Pixelfed has 7,102. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and Pixelfed free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Pixelfed under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and Pixelfed?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and Pixelfed in PHP. 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 Pixelfed?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,299 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Pixelfed if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.