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Bonfire vs diaspora*: catalog facts
Bonfire	diaspora*
Free Self-hosting is free; cooperative hosting is also offered.	Free Free and open source under the AGPL. Hosting is separate.
Web, Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Federated with the open social web Modular building blocks for different community needs	Aspects give fine control over who sees each post One of the longest-running decentralised social networks
Self-hosting needs some sysadmin experience Smaller ecosystem than Mastodon	Does not speak ActivityPub, so it does not federate with Mastodon Activity levels are low compared with newer networks
Self-hosted, Hosted service	Self-hosted, Web application
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License: AGPL-3.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.