Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Faved

Betula is a single-user, self-hosted bookmark manager that supports federation with the Fediverse. It stores the whole collection as a single SQLite file, provides a simple web interface, and can publish and receive bookmarks from other instances.

Key Features

• Federated publishing and timeline features enabling following, liking, and reposting across Fediverse-compatible instances
• Single-file storage using SQLite for the entire bookmark collection
• Create bookmarks with optional title and rich-text notes (Mycomarkup), tagging, and public/private visibility
• Built-in web archiving to save copies of linked pages
• Local search across your collection and the ability to search mutuals' instances
• RSS feed support and integration with feed readers (Miniflux integration available)
• Lightweight, minimal-JavaScript UI with bookmarklet and built-in documentation
• Distributed-friendly behavior: can be followed by Mastodon and other Fediverse software

Use Cases

• Personal bookmarking with optional public sharing and Fediverse distribution
• Maintaining an archived, searchable collection of links for research or long-term reference
• Following and aggregating bookmarks from a small network of mutuals or other Betula instances

Limitations and Considerations

• Single-user design: not intended for multi-user or multi-tenant deployments
• Single-file SQLite backend may not scale well for very large collections or multi-user needs
• Federation compatibility can vary; interactions with other Fediverse software may be partial depending on implementations

Betula is suited for users who want a simple, privacy-oriented bookmark manager that can publish and federate links. It emphasizes minimal setup, local storage, and integration with the Fediverse for sharing and discovery.