Hometown
A self-hosted fork of Mastodon that adds local-only posting for community-focused instances.
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About Hometown
Hometown is a fork of Mastodon, the federated microblogging server. Its main addition is local posting: members can publish posts that stay on their own instance and are not sent to the wider fediverse.
It also supports a wider range of content types than upstream Mastodon. It suits people running a small, community-oriented server who want an inner space for members while keeping federation with other Mastodon-compatible servers. You install and run the server yourself, as you would Mastodon.
Strengths
- Local-only posts that stay on your own instance
- Supports a wider range of content types than Mastodon
- Stays compatible with the wider fediverse
Limitations
- Requires running and maintaining your own Mastodon-style server
- Follows upstream Mastodon, so new features can arrive later
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source; you pay only for your own hosting.
- License
- AGPL-3.0
- Developer
- The Hometown contributors
- Platforms
- Self-hosted
- How it runs
- Self-hosted
- Best suited for
- Admins running a small community instance who want members-only posts
- Categories
- Social networks
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to Hometown
Compare allSoftware that can replace Hometown for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Mastodon
Federated microblogging server with no algorithmic feed.
Mastodon is the upstream server Hometown follows, getting new features first but lacking Hometown's local-only posts and wider range of content types.
glitch-soc
A friendly fork of the Mastodon server software that adds experimental features on top of upstream.
glitch-soc is another Mastodon fork that also offers local-only posts, plus formatted posts, threaded mode and theming, though its experimental features may be less stable.
GoToSocial
A lightweight self-hosted ActivityPub social network server written in Go.
GoToSocial is a lightweight Go server for individuals or small groups, with safety-focused controls but fewer features than Mastodon by design.
Akkoma
A self-hostable ActivityPub microblogging server forked from Pleroma, focused on custom expression.
Akkoma is a Pleroma fork with custom emoji reactions and Misskey-Flavoured Markdown, offering a different codebase than Mastodon while still federating with it.
Pleroma
Lightweight fediverse server that runs on very modest hardware.
Pleroma runs on much smaller hardware than Mastodon and supports existing Mastodon apps, though moderation tooling is less developed and releases are slower.
Sharkey
A federated microblogging server forked from Misskey, with added features and a focus on performance.
Sharkey is a Misskey fork with added features and a performance focus, federating with Mastodon, Akkoma and Pixelfed but maintained by a small team.
Iceshrimp.NET
A self-hosted ActivityPub microblogging server written in C#, continuing the Iceshrimp project.
Iceshrimp.NET is a C# microblogging server that works with existing Mastodon client apps and has regular releases, but a smaller community than Mastodon.
Misskey
Feature-rich fediverse server with reactions, drive storage and theming.
Misskey adds custom reactions, a file drive and deep per-instance theming, but it is heavier to run and support is mostly in Japanese.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Smithereen
A self-hosted federated social network server with friends, walls and groups, using ActivityPub.
Bonfire
An open-source, federated platform for building a community space that connects to the open social web.
snac
A minimal self-hosted ActivityPub instance written in portable C.
Elk
A lightweight open-source web client for Mastodon that runs in the browser.
Tusky
A lightweight open-source Android client for Mastodon and other fediverse servers.
