Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Pixelfed

Pixelfed is a decentralized photo-sharing social network that lets people publish and discover photos without centralized algorithmic timelines. It uses ActivityPub to federate with other Fediverse platforms, enabling cross-server social interactions.

Key Features

• Photo posts with social interactions such as likes and comments
• ActivityPub federation for following and interacting across Fediverse servers
• User profiles and follower/following model similar to mainstream photo networks
• Web-based interface with a modern front end
• Admin controls for operating an instance and managing local policies

Use Cases

• Run a community or organization photo-sharing platform with its own moderation rules
• Share photography publicly while still interacting with users on other Fediverse servers
• Host a private or invite-only photo network for a group, school, or club

Limitations and Considerations

• Federation behavior depends on compatibility and policies of other ActivityPub servers
• Media storage and bandwidth needs can grow quickly on larger instances

Pixelfed is a strong option for anyone who wants a federated, standards-based alternative to centralized photo-sharing platforms. It combines familiar social features with decentralized deployment and interoperability across the Fediverse.

Friendica is a decentralized social networking and communications platform you can run on your own server. It connects to the wider Fediverse, enabling interaction across multiple compatible networks while keeping control over your data and privacy.

Key Features

• Federation with other networks via ActivityPub and diaspora* (and legacy compatibility such as OStatus)
• Fine-grained privacy controls, including access lists per post and private group conversations
• Social features including posts with edits, comments, reactions (like/dislike), and direct messaging
• Events and profiles with public and private aspects
• Photo sharing with audience restrictions
• Content ingestion via RSS/Atom feeds and support for additional integrations through plugins
• Optional content expiration and personal data export

Use Cases

• Hosting a personal or community social network that federates with the broader Fediverse
• Privacy-focused group communication for clubs, NGOs, or teams using access-controlled spaces
• Aggregating blogs and feeds into a social stream while publishing to a federated network

Friendica is a practical choice for users who want a familiar social networking experience while remaining interoperable with other federated platforms. Its plugin and theme ecosystem makes it adaptable for personal sites, families, and small communities.

Hyphanet (also known as Freenet) is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication and publishing. It provides a distributed, encrypted, decentralized datastore that applications and sites can run on top of without relying on centralized servers.

Key Features

• Encrypted, decentralized datastore for storing and retrieving content in a censorship-resistant way
• Plugin ecosystem enabling applications such as forums, microblogging, blogging, and media sharing
• Supports different network modes, including global participation (Opennet) and more private friend-to-friend connectivity
• Designed to improve privacy by minimizing reliance on centralized infrastructure and authorities
• Can be extended with tools intended to bridge disconnected networks via offline transfer workflows (e.g., sneakernet-style sharing)

Use Cases

• Publishing websites and content that is difficult to censor or take down
• Private communities and communication apps (forums, microblogging) built on decentralized storage
• Resilient information sharing in constrained or disrupted network environments

Limitations and Considerations

• Peer-to-peer systems can have higher latency and less predictable performance than centralized services
• Private friend-to-friend usage requires establishing trusted connections, which can reduce ease of onboarding

Hyphanet is suited to users who need privacy-preserving publishing and communication backed by decentralized storage. Its plugin-based approach enables a range of community and media applications while keeping infrastructure decentralized.

NeoDB is an open-source server and community platform for tracking, rating, and reviewing cultural media such as books, movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, games, and performances. It supports self-hosting and federation, enabling interaction across the Fediverse.

Key Features

• Shared media catalog with search and item creation, including links/imports from many third-party sources
• Personal collections with statuses (wishlist, in progress, complete, dropped), ratings, notes, and long-form reviews
• Tags (private or public), custom collections/lists, and progress tracking (for example reading challenges)
• Social feed of friends’ activities with per-activity visibility controls
• Microblogging features for posting statuses/photos and interacting with posts
• Federation via ActivityPub for following and interacting with users across NeoDB instances and other ActivityPub services
• Optional posting support to ATProto/Bluesky identities (NeoDB is not a PDS)
• APIs including a REST API with OpenAPI specification and a Mastodon-compatible API for client compatibility

Use Cases

• Replace proprietary trackers (for example for reading, watching, and listening) with a self-hosted, federated alternative
• Run a community instance for sharing reviews, lists, and recommendations across the Fediverse
• Build third-party apps or integrations using the REST and Mastodon-compatible APIs

NeoDB combines a media tracking database with social and federated communication, making it suitable for both personal collection management and community-driven discovery. It is designed to interoperate across instances while keeping users in control of their collections and sharing preferences.

Nextcloud Social is an app that integrates federated social networking into Nextcloud using the ActivityPub protocol. It lets Nextcloud users post, follow accounts on federated platforms, and keep their posts and profile data on their own Nextcloud server.

Key Features

• Implements ActivityPub to federate with fediverse services (supports following and delivering posts across instances)
• Uses existing Nextcloud user profiles and stores posts on the Nextcloud backend
• Web UI built with modern JavaScript and Vue components for feed, posting and profile interactions
• Server-side integration in PHP so interactions are handled through the Nextcloud app framework
• Emoji handling and database character support considerations (4-byte emoji support may require DB configuration)
• Includes administration utilities and occ commands to manage or reset social data
• Designed to interoperate with Mastodon/Pleroma and other ActivityPub-compatible services

Use Cases

• Provide an internal company or community social stream while allowing federation with the wider fediverse
• Enable Nextcloud users to follow and interact with accounts on Mastodon, Pleroma and other ActivityPub servers
• Consolidate social posts, profiles and media on a private Nextcloud instance for privacy and data control

Limitations and Considerations

• The app has been released in beta and may lack some advanced fediverse features and moderation tooling compared to mature standalone platforms
• Emoji support may require enabling 4-byte character support in your database; consult Nextcloud database requirements
• Functionality and compatibility depend on Nextcloud server version; verify supported Nextcloud releases before deployment

Nextcloud Social is a privacy-oriented way to add federated social features to Nextcloud, letting organizations and individuals host their own social data while remaining part of the fediverse. It is suitable for teams and communities that want integrated social functionality with Nextcloud's user and storage model.

Loops is an open-source, federated short-video social platform designed to let communities host and share short-form video content while connecting across the Fediverse. It provides a creator-focused experience without ads and includes APIs and deployment tooling for self-hosting.

Key Features

• ActivityPub-based federation, enabling instances to interact with other Fediverse services
• Short-form video upload, transcoding-ready workflows and playback optimized for mobile and web
• Web UI built with a Vue frontend and a PHP backend; server-side templates use Blade
• Official API surface and documentation for integrations and client apps
• Docker-friendly deployment artifacts and support for CDN/object storage to serve large media

Use Cases

• Run a community-owned short-video platform for niche communities or interest groups
• Provide creators a federated alternative to centralized short-video services without advertising
• Integrate with Fediverse tools and instances to expand reach across ActivityPub networks

Limitations and Considerations

• Video-heavy workloads require proper object storage and CDN configuration for performance and cost efficiency
• As an open beta project, some features or integrations may be incomplete or subject to change
• Instance administrators are responsible for moderation policies and handling federated content

Loops offers a federated, privacy-conscious alternative to mainstream short-video services, focused on community control and extensibility. It is suitable for teams and communities willing to operate the required media infrastructure and moderation responsibilities.

Socialhome is a federated, self-hosted social networking platform that enables users to create profiles, publish content, and federate with other instances. It supports decentralized social networking with cross-instance interactions and is designed to run on self-hosted infrastructure. It uses a modern stack with a Django backend and a Vue-based frontend, and supports common database and cache layers for scalable deployments. The project is open source under AGPLv3 and includes community-facing documentation and development guidance. (libreselfhosted.com)

Key Features

• Federated and decentralized profiles across instances using ActivityPub and Diaspora protocols.
• Content authored in Markdown with optional HTML/JS/CSS for trusted users.
• Vue-based frontend paired with a Django backend for a modern, responsive UI.
• Self-hosted deployment with Docker, backed by PostgreSQL and Redis for data storage and caching.
• Open-source under AGPLv3 with ongoing community development and documentation.
• API routes integration and a Vue-based frontend testing workflow. (libreselfhosted.com)

Use Cases

• Run a federated community or organization that connects with other social-networking instances across the federation.
• Host your own personal or professional profile hub that interoperates with the wider federated network through ActivityPub. (libreselfhosted.com)

Limitations and Considerations

• The project is actively evolving; the frontend UI may lack some features and user experience polish. (socialhome.readthedocs.io)
• Migration and issue tracking have historically spanned multiple hosting platforms (GitLab to Codeberg), which can affect access to historical issues and discussions. (socialhome.readthedocs.io)

CONCLUSION: Socialhome provides a federated, self-hosted social network capability with a Django backend and Vue frontend, designed for decentralized profiles and cross-network federation via ActivityPub and Diaspora. It offers a Google-like demo path and an actively developed open-source project with community support. (socialhome.network)

GoToSocial is an ActivityPub social network server written in Go, designed as a lightweight and safety-focused way to run a microblogging community in the Fediverse. It emphasizes chronological timelines, privacy controls, and a backend-first approach that works with many Mastodon-compatible clients.

Key Features

• ActivityPub federation with other Fediverse servers
• Mastodon API compatibility (with some extensions)
• Granular post visibility (public, unlisted, followers-only, direct)
• Reply controls via interaction policies
• Optional local-only posting (client-dependent)
• Optional RSS feed for public profiles
• Markdown-based rich text formatting for posts
• Themes and custom CSS for profiles
• Federation controls including domain allow/block lists and modes
• Safety features like strict privacy enforcement, strict blocking logic, and TOTP-based 2FA

Use Cases

• Host a small-to-medium community microblogging server that federates with the Fediverse
• Run a lightweight personal instance on low-resource hardware (SBCs or small VPS)
• Integrate logins with an existing identity provider using OpenID Connect

Limitations and Considerations

• Beta software: missing features and known bugs are expected
• Federation interoperability may vary across different ActivityPub implementations
• Local-only posting depends on client support

GoToSocial is well-suited for administrators who want a resource-efficient Fediverse server with strong moderation and privacy primitives. Its backend-first design makes it especially attractive when paired with existing Mastodon-compatible mobile and web clients.