head to head · open source
Mastodon vs Reddit-Enhancement-Suite
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Reddit-Enhancement-Suite has 4,519 stars, 891 forks, 683 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 1,013% (50,299 vs 4,519 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; Reddit-Enhancement-Suite is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Reddit-Enhancement-Suite 20%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Mastodon | Reddit-Enhancement-Suite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 891 |
| 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 Reddit-Enhancement-Suite if
- You want the Reddit-Enhancement-Suite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite 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 Reddit-Enhancement-Suite
Reddit Enhancement Suite is a browser extension suite that adds modules to the Reddit browsing experience. It lives in the browser extension ecosystem, with builds targeting Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, and it is distributed as a GPL 3.0 licensed JavaScript project. Development happens in the open on GitHub under the honestbleeps organisation, where the README, the wiki, and the changelog directory serve as the primary documentation surfaces.
read the full Reddit-Enhancement-Suite overview →
More in Community & Social
Related comparisons
More Social Networking projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Social Networking field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or Reddit-Enhancement-Suite more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite has 4,519. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite 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 Reddit-Enhancement-Suite?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,299 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Reddit-Enhancement-Suite if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.