Self-Hosted X Alternatives

Alternatives list

1. 

   

   Mastodon

    642 likes

   Decentralized and federated social platform with no ads, focusing on personal interaction, and offering 500 character posts, custom emojis, content warnings, and robust moderation tools.

   151 Mastodon alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (AGPL-3.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Social Network
   • Microblog

   Origin

   • Germany
   • EU

   Platforms

   • Online
   • Android
   • iPhone
   • Android Tablet
   • iPad
   • Self-Hosted
   • F-Droid
   • OpenAPK
   • Cloudron

   • Germany
   • EU

   

   

   

   +6

   

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   48comments

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   Mastodon vs X Comments

   Top Positive Comment by Goldmaster · Nov 11, 2022

   Many people are moving to mastodon due to being centralised the Twitter basket with eggs is beginning to crack.

   Positive comment by venture2935 · Aug 26, 2026

   More open than twitter. Don't need an account to view posts. No algorithm, federated, open source.

   Positive comment by artiman · Sep 14, 2025

   It's decentralized, open source and made by a German non-profit you can make your own Instance so you can't get censored, but you can get defederated by other Instances

   3 of 48 comments

   

   

   • Mastodon is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
   • Mastodon is Decentralized, Privacy focused and LightweightX is not according to our users
2. 

   

   Bluesky

    131 likes

   An open social network that gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience.

   91 Bluesky alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (MIT)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Social Network
   • Microblog

   Origin

   • United States

   Platforms

   • Online
   • Android
   • iPhone
   • Android Tablet
   • Self-Hosted
   • OpenAPK
   • Cloudron
   • iPad

   • United States

   

   

   

   +1

   

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   4comments

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   Bluesky vs X Comments

   Positive comment by Ola Johansson · Feb 13, 2024

   Similar and decentralized, and now no invite needed.

   Positive comment by lounes-tb · Dec 9, 2024

   It's created by members of the original twitter team. It is what twitter tried to be before Musk ruined it: A humanitarian place of positivity and empathy. If you want a safe place with a community full of artists and people who genuinely care, go to Bluesky. If mockery, viciously thrown slurs and deception are more your thing, go to x

   Positive comment by Joseph Leskey · Mar 24, 2025

   The best X alternative and arguably the spiritual successor of good old Twitter. It has all of the essential features of a microblogging platform, a great community, and a lovely look and feel. The content seems high quality, and the moderation seems to be on point. A social media platform that's actually pleasant, much like Twitter ought to have been.

   3 of 4 comments

   

   

   • Bluesky is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
   • Bluesky is Decentralized and LightweightX is not according to our users
4. 

   

   diaspora*

    452 likes

   Diaspora is a federated social networking service, designed to be a more privacy-aware alternative to Facebook . Share what you want, with whom you want.

   130 diaspora* alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (AGPL-3.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Social Network
   • Microblog

   Origin

   • United States

   Platforms

   • Online
   • BSD
   • Self-Hosted
   • Ruby

   • United States

   

   

   

   +2

   

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   7comments

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   diaspora* vs X Comments

   Top Positive Comment by Eden · May 18, 2023

   I think Mastodon is the best alternative to Twitter. But, Diaspora is like a more complete Twitter, closer to what Facebook should be like.

   Top Negative Comment by velnemed · Oct 22, 2017

   Diaspora is a Facebook alternative, it's not Twitter-like

   Positive comment by Guest · May 5, 2019

   decentralized and easy to use

   3 of 7 comments

   

   

   • diaspora* is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
   • diaspora* is Decentralized and Privacy focusedX is not according to our users
5. 

   

   Pleroma

    73 likes

   Pleroma is a free, federated social networking server built on open protocols. It is compatible with GNU Social, Mastodon, and many other ActivityPub and OStatus implementations.

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (AGPL-3.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Social Network
   • Microblog

   Platforms

   • Online
   • Self-Hosted

   

   

   

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   3comments

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   Pleroma vs X Comments

   Positive comment by swapnilgnu · Nov 30, 2022

   A light-weight decentralized alternative for microblogging.

   Positive comment by clacke_ · May 4, 2019

   Pleroma is part of the OStatus fediverse and the ActivityPub fediverse. Your service is only one out of many, and you can interact with users running SocialHome, Mastodon, Pleroma, PixelFed, PeerTube and other services, and like and comment on their content. If you don't like how your service is run, you can run your own and still be part of the same networks.

   Positive comment by ccesar · Dec 8, 2018

   Interface similar to Twitter, interacts with the Fediverse, better moderation tools than Mastodon.

   3 of 3 comments

   

   

   • Pleroma is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
   • Pleroma is Decentralized, Lightweight and Privacy focusedX is not according to our users
6. 

   

   Friendica

    144 likes

   Friendica is a distributed social network application. Which allow users to connect with others via their own Friendica server, but may also fully integrate contacts from other platforms including Twitter, diaspora*, Pump.io and StatusNet into their 'newsfeed'.

   124 Friendica alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (AGPL-3.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Social Network
   • Microblog

   Origin

   • Australia

   Platforms

   • Online
   • BSD
   • Self-Hosted
   • PHP
   • Docker

   • Australia

   

   

   

   +3

   

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   2comments

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   Friendica vs X Comments

   Positive comment by clacke_ · May 4, 2019

   Friendica is part of the OStatus fediverse, the ActivityPub fediverse and the Diaspora Federation. Your service is only one out of many, and you can interact with users running Diaspora, SocialHome, Mastodon, Pleroma, PixelFed, PeerTube and other services, and like and comment on their content. If you don't like how your service is run, you can run your own and still be part of the same networks.

   Negative comment by skyling · May 6, 2019

   Designed after the Facebook-style model, not microblogging

   2 of 2 comments

   

   

   • Friendica is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
   • Friendica is Decentralized and Privacy focusedX is not according to our users
8. 

   

   Misskey

    36 likes

   A forever evolving, sophisticated microblogging platform.

   65 Misskey alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (AGPL-3.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Social Network
   • Microblog

   Origin

   • Japan

   Platforms

   • Online
   • Self-Hosted

   • Japan

   

   

   

   +9

   

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   2comments

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   Misskey vs X Comments

   Positive comment by clacke_ · May 4, 2019

   Misskey is part of the ActivityPub fediverse. Your service is only one out of many, and you can interact with users running SocialHome, Mastodon, Pleroma, PixelFed, PeerTube and other services, and like and comment on their content. If you don't like how your service is run, you can run your own and still be part of the same networks.

   Positive comment by MaterialFuture · May 13, 2022

   Misskey federated and allows you to host your own service via ActivityPub similar to Mastodon or Pleroma. What Misskey has that others don't is the fully customized dashboards for each instance and the ability to play games and integrate other APIs into your application. The userbase is mostly Japanese but there are more English speaking instances popping up as of late.

   2 of 2 comments

   

   

   • Misskey is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
   • Misskey is Customizable, Decentralized and LightweightX is not according to our users
9. 

   

   Hubzilla

    90 likes

   Hubzilla is a powerful platform for creating interconnected based websites featuring a decentralised identity, communications, and permissions framework built using common webserver technology. Hubzilla is very suitable for communities (of any size).

   76 Hubzilla alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source

   Application typeApplication types

   • Social Network
   • Blog Publishing

   Origin

   • United States

   Platforms

   • Online
   • Self-Hosted

   • United States

   

   

   

   +9

   

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10. 

    

    nostr

     23 likes

    The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global "social" network once and for all.

    56 nostr alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application typeApplication types

    • Social Network
    • Microblog

    Origin

    • International

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted

    

    Good alternative?Is nostr a good alternative to X?

     
11. 

    

    GNU social

     98 likes

    GNU social is a continuation of the StatusNet project. It is social communication software for both public and private communications. It is widely supported and has a large userbase.

    91 GNU social alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application typeApplication types

    • Social Network
    • Microblog

    Origin

    • United States

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted

    • United States

    

    

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    1comment

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    Discontinued

    Not actively developed/maintained anymore.

    GNU social vs X Comments

    Positive comment by godisinthewind · Apr 5, 2017

    It is very similar to twitter, but it is decentralized. In many instances the character count is higher which is nice.

    1 of 1 comments

    

    

    • GNU social is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
    • GNU social is Decentralized and Privacy focusedX is not according to our users
12. 

    

    Movim

     57 likes

    Decentralized social and blog platform based on XMPP, enabling self-hosting, cross-network chat, video calls, and group collaboration. Users control and migrate their data, communicate across various networks, and access services from any node while preserving privacy and open-source principles.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (AGPL-3.0)

    Application typeApplication types

    • Video Calling
    • Social Network

    Origin

    • France
    • EU

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted

    • France
    • EU

    

    

    

    +6

    

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13. 

    

    Nerimity

     18 likes

    Open-source chat platform providing community-focused group messaging, video calls, profile customization with animated avatars, custom emojis, tags, post creation, discovery of communities, and full source code access on GitHub. Entirely donation-funded.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (GPL-3.0)

    Application typeApplication types

    • Group Chat
    • Instant Messenger

    Origin

    • United Kingdom

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • Android Tablet
    • Self-Hosted

    • United Kingdom

    

    

    

    +2

    

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14. 

    

    GoToSocial

     14 likes

    GoToSocial is an ActivityPub social network server, written in Golang.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (AGPL-3.0)

    Application typeApplication types

    • Social Network
    • Microblog

    Origin

    • International

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Self-Hosted
    • Kubernetes
    • YunoHost

    • Global

    

    

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