Mastodon by mastodon
Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community
About Mastodon
From the project's README at github.com/mastodon/mastodon. Lightly cleaned for readability; for the full source see the upstream repo.
> [!NOTE] > Want to learn more about Mastodon? > Click below to find out more in a video.
Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub where users can follow friends and discover new ones. On Mastodon, users can publish anything they want: links, pictures, text, and video. All Mastodon servers are interoperable as a federated network (users on one server can seamlessly communicate with users from another one, including non-Mastodon software that implements ActivityPub!) Navigation Project homepage Donate to support development [View
Health score breakdown
6-dimension composite. See methodology for formula and weights.
Adoption signals
Real-world usage data, pulled from each registry. The bigger the numbers, the more battle-tested the project.
| Signal | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 50k | github.com/mastodon/mastodon |
| GitHub forks | 7.4k | github.com/mastodon/mastodon |
Release & maintenance
Is this project actively maintained, or about to die? Check the recency of last commit and last release.
| Project age | 10.2 years | since Feb 2016 |
| Last commit | 2 days ago | May 5, 2026 |
| Releases shipped | 333 | last: 22 days ago |
| Security policy | SECURITY.md | declared by maintainers |
| Funding links | 4 | declared by maintainers |
Self-hosting cost across providers
Detected requirements: 4GB RAM, 40GB disk minimum. Cheapest plan per provider that meets the requirement.
| Provider | Plan | Specs | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hetzner | CAX11 | 2c · 4GB · 40GB | $4.13 USD | Deploy → |
| vultr | VC2 | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5 USD | Deploy → |
| linode | Nanode 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5.12 USD | Deploy → |
| digitalocean | Basic Regular 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $6 USD | Deploy → |
Security advisories
CVE-2026-33869. What people say on Hacker News
Ready to self-host Mastodon?
Spin up a hetzner CAX11 (4GB RAM, 40GB disk) for $4.13/mo and follow the project's official install docs.
Data last refreshed May 7, 2026.
Similar open-source projects
Projects in our directory that replace the same SaaS or share topics with Mastodon.