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20 self-hosted Threads alternatives

Threads is Meta’s microblogging social network for sharing text posts, photos and links, following accounts and participating in conversations. It is integrated with Instagram accounts and in some regions implements ActivityPub federation for cross-platform interactions.

Alternatives to Threads

Mastodon is an open-source, ActivityPub-compatible social network server for microblogging, offering federated timelines, moderation tools, media support, and APIs.

Mastodon screenshot

50.3k stars7.5k forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Open-source federated social network built around independently run pods, privacy via Aspects, and standard social features; implemented in Ruby on Rails.

diaspora* screenshot

13.7k stars2.9k forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Misskey is an open-source federated microblogging platform using ActivityPub, enabling communities to run their own social server and interact across the fediverse.

Misskey screenshot

11.3k stars1.6k forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Pixelfed is a free, open-source, ActivityPub-based photo sharing social network that federates with the Fediverse for decentralized social media.

Pixelfed screenshot

7.1k stars875 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Ech0 is a lightweight open-source, self-hosted federated publishing platform (ActivityPub) with a Vue-based UI, SQLite storage, Docker deployment and built-in Markdown editor.

Ech0 screenshot

2.1k stars158 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Friendica is a decentralized, federated social network server that connects to the Fediverse, offering posts, profiles, events, photos, and strong privacy controls.

Friendica screenshot

1.7k stars377 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Hyphanet (formerly Freenet) is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication and publishing using an encrypted, decentralized data store and plugin-based apps.

Hyphanet screenshot

1.2k stars237 forksGPL-2.0last commit Actively maintained

Self-hosted, federated catalog and social tracker for books, movies, TV, music, podcasts, games, and performances with ratings, reviews, lists, and ActivityPub.

NeoDB screenshot

875 stars66 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Adds ActivityPub federation to Nextcloud so users can post, follow, and interact with the fediverse while keeping content on their Nextcloud instance.

498 stars58 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

#11

Headless federated microblogging server for single users that implements ActivityPub and Mastodon-compatible REST APIs for use with Mastodon clients.

Hollo screenshot

486 stars57 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Lightweight single-user ActivityPub server using SQLite; supports rich text, Markdown, images, polls, threading, translations and MCP.

437 stars22 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

#13

Mbin is a federated content aggregator offering voting, discussion and microblogging via ActivityPub. A community-focused fork of kbin, built with PHP and Symfony.

Mbin screenshot

426 stars33 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

#14

Hatsu is a self-hosted ActivityPub bridge that automates federation for static sites by mapping site users and posts to Fediverse actors, handling follows, posts, and replies via feeds.

Hatsu screenshot

258 stars7 forksAGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

#15

Lightweight federated social network served over the Gemini protocol; implements ActivityPub, stores data in a single SQLite file, and is written in Go.

203 stars7 forksApache-2.0last commit Actively maintained

Pleroma is a lightweight ActivityPub server for the Fediverse, providing a self-hostable social network that federates with Mastodon and other compatible platforms.

Pleroma screenshot

Activity unknown

Hubzilla is a federated server platform for social networking, groups, publishing, and file sharing with strong privacy controls, nomadic identity, and SSO across hubs.

Hubzilla screenshot

Activity unknown

Yarn.social is a decentralized, self-hosted social network based on the Twtxt format, offering privacy-first microblogging with web and CLI clients and a pod-based model.

Yarn.social screenshot

Activity unknown

What replacing Threads actually involves

Every option on this page is open source and free to run on your own hardware, so you own the data and there is no subscription to cancel. 15 of 20 shipped a commit in the last six months. Licences in this list: AGPL-3.0, GPL-2.0, Apache-2.0. In exchange you take on hosting, backups and updates yourself.

Browse everything in Federated Social Networks.

Other tools people replace alongside Threads