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Mastodon vs Bonfire: catalog facts
Mastodon	Bonfire
Free Free and open source under the AGPL. Hosting is separate.	Free Self-hosting is free; cooperative hosting is also offered.
Android, Web, Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Chronological timelines with no engagement ranking Federated, so moving servers does not mean losing your network	Federated with the open social web Modular building blocks for different community needs
Your experience depends heavily on which server you join Running a server has real moderation and maintenance cost	Self-hosting needs some sysadmin experience Smaller ecosystem than Mastodon
Self-hosted, Web application	Self-hosted, Hosted service
Open source	Open source
License: AGPL-3.0	License not stated
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 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

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