head to head · open source
Pixelfed vs writefreely
Pixelfed has 7,138 GitHub stars, 896 forks, 116 open issues and last shipped yesterday. writefreely has 5,283 stars, 408 forks, 108 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Pixelfed leads on adoption by 35% (7,138 vs 5,283 stars). Pixelfed is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; writefreely is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Pixelfed has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, writefreely 8%. Pixelfed was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (activitypub, federation), 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
| Pixelfed | writefreely | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.1K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 896 | ⑂ 408 |
| 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 writefreely if
- You want the writefreely feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and writefreely 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 writefreely
WriteFreely is a clean, minimalist publishing platform made for writers. Start a blog, share knowledge within your organization, or build a community around the shared act of writing. Try the writing experience Find an instance Features Made for writing Built on a plain, auto saving editor, WriteFreely gives you a distraction free writing environment. Once published, your words are front and center, and easy to read. A connected community Start writing together, publicly or privately. Connect with other communities, whether running WriteFreely, Plume, or other ActivityPub powered software. And bring members on…
read the full writefreely overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pixelfed or writefreely more popular?
Pixelfed has 7,138 GitHub stars and writefreely has 5,283. Pixelfed has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pixelfed and writefreely free?
Both are open source. Pixelfed is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and writefreely under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pixelfed and writefreely?
Pixelfed is written in PHP and writefreely in Go. 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 writefreely?
Choose Pixelfed if you want the larger community (7,138 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose writefreely if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.