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Streams vs Bonfire: catalog facts
Streams	Bonfire
Free Free to download and run on your own server.	Free Self-hosting is free; cooperative hosting is also offered.
Web, Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Nomadic identity not tied to one server Fine-grained permissions on content	Federated with the open social web Modular building blocks for different community needs
Requires running and maintaining a PHP web server Documentation lives mainly inside the repository	Self-hosting needs some sysadmin experience Smaller ecosystem than Mastodon
Self-hosted	Self-hosted, Hosted service
Open source	Open source
License not stated	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 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

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