Self-Hosted X Alternatives

X is not available as a self-hosted solution but there are plenty of alternatives for power users and business that want to host a solution on-premise. The best Self-Hosted alternative is Mastodon, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to X and many of them are available as a self-hosted solution so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Self-Hosted alternatives to X are diaspora*, Pleroma, GNU social and Friendica.

filter to find the best alternatives

X alternatives are mainly Social Networks, but if you're looking for Microblogs or Blog Publishing Tools you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Privacy focused, Social Networks, Android, Microblogging, Self-Hosted, Open Source and Decentralized. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to X.
More about X
Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard
X alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. Mastodon icon

    Mastodon

     573 likes

    Decentralized and federated social platform with no ads, focusing on personal interaction, and offering 500 character posts, custom emojis, content warnings, and robust moderation tools.

    128 Mastodon alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • F-Droid
    • Cloudron
    • Android Tablet
    Screenshot of the Mastodon web interface
     
    |
    47
    303
    Comments about Mastodon as an Alternative to X
    Top Positive Comment
    Goldmaster
    9

    Many people are moving to mastodon due to being centralised the Twitter basket with eggs is beginning to crack.

    artiman
    Positive
    0

    It's decentralized, open source and made by a German non-profit you can make your own Instance so you can't get censored, but you can get defederated by other Instances

    Joseph Leskey
    Positive
    1

    Mastodon is a very solid, open source, and pretty well decentralized alternative to Twitter. It's fairly minimalistic and easy to work with, but there are some caveats. It does not appear that you are currently able to quote posts, and sometimes the synchronization between decentralized pods is not quite what one would like it to be. Still, it is very much worth a try.

    3 of 47 comments
    Mastodon icon
    Mastodon icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Mastodon is a great X alternative.

    • Mastodon is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Mastodon is Privacy focused and LightweightX is not according to our users
  2. diaspora* icon

    diaspora*

     442 likes

    Diaspora is a federated social networking service, designed to be a more privacy-aware alternative to Facebook . Share what you want, with whom you want.

    119 diaspora* alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • BSD
    • Self-Hosted
    • Ruby
    diaspora* screenshot 1
     
    |
    7
    42
    Comments about diaspora* as an Alternative to X
    Top Positive Comment
    Eden
    3

    I think Mastodon is the best alternative to Twitter. But, Diaspora is like a more complete Twitter, closer to what Facebook should be like.

    Top Negative Comment
    velnemed
    26

    Diaspora is a Facebook alternative, it's not Twitter-like

    Guest
    Positive
    2

    decentralized and easy to use

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    3 of 7 comments
    diaspora* icon
    diaspora* icon

    • Most users think diaspora* is a great X alternative.

    • diaspora* is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
    • diaspora* is Privacy focusedX is not according to our users
  4. Pleroma icon

    Pleroma

     67 likes

    Pleroma is a free, federated social networking server built on open protocols. It is compatible with GNU Social, Mastodon, and many other ActivityPub and OStatus implementations.

    56 Pleroma alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Pleroma screenshot 1
     
    |
    3
    29
    Comments about Pleroma as an Alternative to X
    swapnilgnu
    Positive
    2

    A light-weight decentralized alternative for microblogging.

    clacke_
    Positive
    0

    Pleroma is part of the OStatus fediverse and the ActivityPub fediverse. Your service is only one out of many, and you can interact with users running SocialHome, Mastodon, Pleroma, PixelFed, PeerTube and other services, and like and comment on their content. If you don't like how your service is run, you can run your own and still be part of the same networks.

    ccesar
    Positive
    2

    Interface similar to Twitter, interacts with the Fediverse, better moderation tools than Mastodon.

    Pleroma icon
    Pleroma icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Pleroma is a great X alternative.

    • Pleroma is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Pleroma is Lightweight and Privacy focusedX is not according to our users
  5. GNU social icon

    GNU social

     98 likes

    GNU social is a continuation of the StatusNet project. It is social communication software for both public and private communications. It is widely supported and has a large userbase.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    Screenshot of a GNU social website with Swedish localization. Source Wikipedia / FSF
     
    |
    1
    32
    Comments about GNU social as an Alternative to X
    godisinthewind
    Positive
    8

    It is very similar to twitter, but it is decentralized. In many instances the character count is higher which is nice.

    GNU social icon
    GNU social icon

    • Almost everyone thinks GNU social is a great X alternative.

    • GNU social is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
    • GNU social is Privacy focusedX is not according to our users
  6. Friendica icon

    Friendica

     141 likes

    Friendica is a distributed social network application. Which allow users to connect with others via their own Friendica server, but may also fully integrate contacts from other platforms including Twitter, diaspora*, Pump.io and StatusNet into their 'newsfeed'.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • BSD
    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
    • Online
    • Docker
    Logo
     
    |
    2
    14
    Comments about Friendica as an Alternative to X
    clacke_
    Positive
    3

    Friendica is part of the OStatus fediverse, the ActivityPub fediverse and the Diaspora Federation. Your service is only one out of many, and you can interact with users running Diaspora, SocialHome, Mastodon, Pleroma, PixelFed, PeerTube and other services, and like and comment on their content. If you don't like how your service is run, you can run your own and still be part of the same networks.

    skyling
    Negative
    5

    Designed after the Facebook-style model, not microblogging

    Friendica icon
    Friendica icon

    • Most users think Friendica is a great X alternative.

    • Friendica is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Friendica is Privacy focusedX is not according to our users
  7. Misskey icon

    Misskey

     30 likes

    A forever evolving, sophisticated microblogging platform.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Timeline in Home mode
     
    |
    2
    11
    Comments about Misskey as an Alternative to X
    clacke_
    Positive
    1

    Misskey is part of the ActivityPub fediverse. Your service is only one out of many, and you can interact with users running SocialHome, Mastodon, Pleroma, PixelFed, PeerTube and other services, and like and comment on their content. If you don't like how your service is run, you can run your own and still be part of the same networks.

    MaterialFuture
    Positive
    1

    Misskey federated and allows you to host your own service via ActivityPub similar to Mastodon or Pleroma. What Misskey has that others don't is the fully customized dashboards for each instance and the ability to play games and integrate other APIs into your application. The userbase is mostly Japanese but there are more English speaking instances popping up as of late.

    Misskey icon
    Misskey icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Misskey is a great X alternative.

    • Misskey is Free and Open SourceX is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Misskey is Customizable and LightweightX is not according to our users
  9. Hubzilla icon

    Hubzilla

     87 likes

    Hubzilla is a powerful platform for creating interconnected based websites featuring a decentralised identity, communications, and permissions framework built using common webserver technology. Hubzilla is very suitable for communities (of any size).

    69 Hubzilla alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Channel
     
  10. nostr icon

    nostr

     19 likes

    The simplest open protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global "social" network once and for all.

    43 nostr alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
     
  11. Known icon

    Known

     83 likes

    Known is a simple platform for publishing words, pictures, podcasts and more to a site that you control. Choose to share it on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, or extend it to integrate with the software you already use.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Known screenshot 1
     
  12. GoToSocial icon

    GoToSocial

     11 likes

    GoToSocial is an ActivityPub social network server, written in Golang.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Self-Hosted
    • Kubernetes
    • YunoHost
    a screenshot of the GoToSocial web interface
     
  13. Akkoma icon

    Akkoma

     9 likes

    This is a fork of Pleroma, which is a microblogging server software that can federate (= exchange messages with) other servers that support ActivityPub. What that means is that you can host a server for yourself or your friends and stay in control of your online identity, but...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Akkoma screenshot 1
     
  14. Soapbox.pub icon

    Soapbox.pub

     10 likes

    Soapbox is customizable open-source software that puts the power of social media in the hands of the people. Feature-rich and hyper-focused on providing a user experience to rival Big Tech, Soapbox is already home to some of the biggest alternative social platforms on the...

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Screenshot of Soapbox home feed.
     
12 of 23 X alternatives