head to head · open source
Mastodon vs SCrawler
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SCrawler has 2,174 stars, 154 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 2,214% (50,299 vs 2,174 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; SCrawler is written in Visual Basic .NET under GPL-3.0. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, SCrawler 7%. 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 | SCrawler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Visual Basic .NET |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 154 |
| 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 SCrawler if
- You want the SCrawler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Visual Basic .NET
- You evaluated both and SCrawler 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 SCrawler
SCrawler is a GPL 3.0 licensed, Visual Basic .NET media downloader and crawler that pulls photos and videos from user profiles and feeds across social networks and adult platforms, aimed at individuals who want a local archive of media they already have access to.
read the full SCrawler overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon or SCrawler more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and SCrawler has 2,174. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and SCrawler free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SCrawler under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and SCrawler?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and SCrawler in Visual Basic .NET. 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 SCrawler?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,299 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose SCrawler if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.