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Yarn.social vs Mastodon: catalog facts
Yarn.social	Mastodon
Free The site describes the ecosystem and its components as free and open source.	Free Free and open source under the AGPL. Hosting is separate.
Web, Self-hosted, Command line	Android, Web, Self-hosted
Feeds are plain text files that users can host Offers web, desktop, and terminal clients	Chronological timelines with no engagement ranking Federated, so moving servers does not mean losing your network
Posting requires choosing and configuring a backend	Your experience depends heavily on which server you join Running a server has real moderation and maintenance cost
Downloadable app, Web application, Self-hosted	Self-hosted, Web application
Open source	Open source
License: AGPL-3.0	License: AGPL-3.0
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 8, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

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