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Mastodon vs Sharkey: catalog facts
Mastodon	Sharkey
Free Free and open source under the AGPL. Hosting is separate.	Free Free to self-host.
Android, Web, Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Chronological timelines with no engagement ranking Federated, so moving servers does not mean losing your network	Tracks upstream Misskey while adding features Federates with Mastodon, Akkoma, Pixelfed and more
Your experience depends heavily on which server you join Running a server has real moderation and maintenance cost	Hosting an instance requires server administration Smaller project with a small maintainer team
Self-hosted, Web application	Self-hosted
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.