head to head · open source
Pixelfed vs talkyard
Pixelfed has 7,138 GitHub stars, 896 forks, 116 open issues and last shipped yesterday. talkyard has 1,815 stars, 127 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Pixelfed leads on adoption by 293% (7,138 vs 1,815 stars). Pixelfed is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; talkyard is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Pixelfed has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, talkyard 7%. Pixelfed 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
| Pixelfed | talkyard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.1K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-07-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 896 | ⑂ 127 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Pixelfed if
- You weight community size — 7.1K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick talkyard if
- You want the talkyard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and talkyard fits your workflow better
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 →
About talkyard
Talkyard ============================= Forum software, with chat, and anonymous comments. Thoughtful discussions.  Insightful comments rise to the top. Upvote ideas.  Sort by votes. Question Answers.  Discuss, select an answer. Chat channels.  Pretty basic features. Blog comments.  Listen to your readers. How does it compare with other software?   Find out here . Self Hosting:   See talkyard prod one Demo:   Discussion forum:   Documentation:   (incomplete) Development:   That's this repo! See: docs/developing talkyard.md Features Good…
read the full talkyard overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pixelfed or talkyard more popular?
Pixelfed has 7,138 GitHub stars and talkyard has 1,815. Pixelfed has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pixelfed and talkyard free?
Both are open source. Pixelfed is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and talkyard under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pixelfed and talkyard?
Pixelfed is written in PHP and talkyard in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Pixelfed or talkyard?
Choose Pixelfed if you want the larger community (7,138 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose talkyard if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.