Alternatives to Friendica
Federated social platform that bridges to Mastodon, diaspora*, email and RSS. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Friendica
Federated social platform that bridges to Mastodon, diaspora*, email and RSS.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Friendica.
diaspora*
Decentralised social network built on independently run pods.
diaspora* runs on independently hosted pods with aspects for per-post audience control, but it does not federate with Mastodon and has low activity levels.
Hubzilla
An open-source, self-hosted fediverse platform for social networking, publishing and collaboration with nomadic identity.
Hubzilla adds nomadic identity, built-in files, calendars, webpages and wikis to federated social networking, though its many features make it complex to run.
Streams
A self-hosted decentralised social server with nomadic identity and fine-grained permissions over who sees what.
Streams is a self-hosted PHP social server with nomadic identity and fine-grained permissions, and its documentation lives mainly inside the repository.
Mastodon
Federated microblogging server with no algorithmic feed.
Mastodon focuses on federated microblogging with chronological timelines, dropping Friendica's bridges to diaspora*, email and RSS and its groups, events and photo albums.
Bonfire
An open-source, federated platform for building a community space that connects to the open social web.
Bonfire is an open-source federated community platform with modular building blocks and cooperative hosting options, though it has a smaller ecosystem than Mastodon.
Smithereen
A self-hosted federated social network server with friends, walls and groups, using ActivityPub.
Smithereen offers friends, walls and groups over ActivityPub with Docker setup and a public domain licence, from a smaller community.
Misskey
Feature-rich fediverse server with reactions, drive storage and theming.
Misskey offers a more modern fediverse experience with custom reactions, a built-in file drive and deep theming, but it is heavier to run and mostly documented in Japanese.
Pleroma
Lightweight fediverse server that runs on very modest hardware.
Pleroma trades Friendica's PHP stack and network bridges for a lightweight fediverse server on modest hardware with a Mastodon-compatible API, though its release cadence is slower.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Friendica as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Bluesky
Decentralized Twitter-style network built on the open AT Protocol.
Friendica is a self-hosted, open-source federated platform that bridges to Mastodon, diaspora*, email and RSS and adds groups and events, with a dated interface and PHP hosting needs.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Raccoon for Friendica
An open source Kotlin Multiplatform client for Friendica and Mastodon accounts.
Fedilab
A multi-account Android client for Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, Pixelfed and PeerTube.
Whalebird
A single-column desktop client for Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica and other fediverse accounts.
Bridgy Fed
A free service that bridges accounts between the fediverse, Bluesky and personal websites.
Movim
A self-hostable web client for XMPP that combines chat, group rooms, news feeds and video calls.
Pixelfed
Federated photo sharing platform with no ads or algorithm.
