head to head · open source
Mastodon vs sharer.js
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars, 7,498 forks, 4,525 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharer.js has 2,091 stars, 202 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Mastodon leads on adoption by 2,305% (50,299 vs 2,091 stars). Mastodon is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0; sharer.js is written in JavaScript under MIT. Mastodon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, sharer.js 10%. Mastodon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Mastodon | sharer.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.5K | ⑂ 202 |
| 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 sharer.js if
- You want the sharer.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and sharer.js 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 sharer.js
sharer.js is a JavaScript library for creating custom social share buttons on DOM elements for a website. It lives in the Community & Social / Social Networking ecosystem, and its purpose is to let a site owner add share components without using jQuery. The project is described as very tiny, with no dependencies, and it is released under the MIT license. The repository metadata records 2091 stars, 202 forks, one open issue, an 11 year age, and a last push on 2026 07 21.
read the full sharer.js 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 sharer.js more popular?
Mastodon has 50,299 GitHub stars and sharer.js has 2,091. Mastodon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mastodon and sharer.js free?
Both are open source. Mastodon is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and sharer.js under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mastodon and sharer.js?
Mastodon is written in Ruby and sharer.js 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 sharer.js?
Choose Mastodon if you want the larger community (50,299 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose sharer.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.