Mastodon
Self-hosted federated social network
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is an open-source, federated microblogging platform. Running your own instance gives you full control over moderation and data while still connecting to the wider fediverse through ActivityPub.
Best for
Communities wanting their own social platform with federation
Replaces
- X
- Bluesky
Key features
- ActivityPub federation
- Full moderation control
- Custom domain identity
- Public, unlisted and follower-only posts
How to deploy
- Docker Compose
- Manual install
Project health
- GitHub stars: 50,340
- Last code push: 2026-09-30
- Open issues: 4,561
- Status: actively developed
Figures pulled from the GitHub API and refreshed periodically.