head to head · open source
Mastodon vs postmarks
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. postmarks has 546 stars, 42 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 9,112% (50,299 vs 546 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; postmarks is written in JavaScript under MIT. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, postmarks 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 (activitypub, mastodon), 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 | postmarks | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 546 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 42 |
| 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 postmarks if
- You want the postmarks feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and postmarks 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 postmarks
Postmarks is a single user bookmarking website that you host yourself and connect to the Fediverse, built for one person who wants to own their bookmarks while still sharing them with Mastodon, FireFish, and any other text based ActivityPub platform.
read the full postmarks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or postmarks more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and postmarks has 546. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and postmarks free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and postmarks under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and postmarks?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and postmarks in JavaScript. 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 postmarks?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,299 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose postmarks if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.