head to head · open source
Mastodon vs Reddit-Enhancement-Suite
Mastodon has 50,465 GitHub stars, 7,536 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Reddit-Enhancement-Suite has 4,545 stars, 895 forks, 683 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 1,010% (50,465 vs 4,545 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.
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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 | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 895 |
| 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
[!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 Reddit-Enhancement-Suite
Reddit Enhancement Suite Please read this post before continuing. Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) is a suite of modules that enhances your Reddit browsing experience. For general documentation, visit the Reddit Enhancement Suite Wiki. Introduction Hi there! Thanks for checking out RES on GitHub. A few important notes: 1. RES is licensed under GPLv3, which means you're technically free to do whatever you wish in terms of redistribution as long as you maintain GPLv3 licensing. However, I ask out of courtesy that should you choose to release your own, separate distribution of RES, you please name it something else…
read the full Reddit-Enhancement-Suite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or Reddit-Enhancement-Suite more popular?
Mastodon has 50,465 GitHub stars and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite has 4,545. 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 (50,465 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.