head to head · open source
misskey vs Pixelfed
misskey has 11,368 GitHub stars, 1,641 forks, 2,535 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Pixelfed has 7,138 stars, 896 forks, 116 open issues and last shipped yesterday. misskey leads on adoption by 59% (11,368 vs 7,138 stars). misskey is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Pixelfed is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. misskey has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Pixelfed 13%. Pixelfed was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (activitypub, federation, fediverse), 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
| misskey | Pixelfed | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 7.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 896 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick misskey if
- You weight community size — 11K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Pixelfed if
- You want the Pixelfed feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Pixelfed fits your workflow better
About misskey
🌎 Misskey is an open source, federated social media platform that's free forever! 🚀 Learn more Thanks Thanks to Sentry for providing the error tracking platform that helps us catch unexpected errors. Thanks to Chromatic for providing the visual testing platform that helps us review UI changes and catch visual regressions. Thanks to Codecov for providing the code coverage platform that helps us improve our test coverage. Thanks to Crowdin for providing the localization platform that helps us translate Misskey into many languages. Thanks to Docker for providing the container platform that helps us run Misskey in…
read the full misskey overview →
About Pixelfed
Introduction Photo sharing the way it should be. Pixelfed lets your casual shots and creative photography find their audience naturally, without algorithmic barriers. Join millions of people sharing across the fediverse. Official Documentation Documentation for Pixelfed can be found on the Pixelfed documentation website. Run on YunoHost Pixelfed app for YunoHost. See the package source code License Pixelfed is open sourced software licensed under the AGPL license. Communication The ways you can communicate on the project are below. Before interacting, please read through the Code Of Conduct. Mastodon…
read the full Pixelfed overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is misskey or Pixelfed more popular?
misskey has 11,368 GitHub stars and Pixelfed has 7,138. misskey has the larger community by that measure.
Are misskey and Pixelfed free?
Both are open source. misskey is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Pixelfed under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between misskey and Pixelfed?
misskey is written in TypeScript and Pixelfed in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, misskey or Pixelfed?
Choose misskey if you want the larger community (11,368 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Pixelfed if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.