Archived: Grow your own social network | Grow Your Own Services

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You may be wondering why someone would want to start their own social network? What’s the point? Who would want to just talk to themselves?

The answer is the Fediverse, a huge collection of independent social networks that talk to each other, effectively a single super-network used by millions. To find out more, visit the What is the Fediverse? page.

Fediverse servers come in many different types as described below, but all of them are part of the same super-network. For example, someone on a Mastodon server can follow people on other Mastodon servers, and they can also follow people on Pixelfed servers etc.

Listed below are Fediverse social networks that can be hosted via managed hosting providers (companies that let you run your own server while they handle the technical stuff). By the way, please do research providers before using their services.

(If you’re seriously interested in making your own social network and you want some in-depth practical info about actually doing it, please see my article about making a Mastodon server in 10 steps. Although it’s written about Mastodon, most of it applies to any kind of independent social media server.)

Mastodon ⧉

Screenshot of the Mastodon social network, showing a particular user's profile page featuring pictures of coffee mugs and coffee beans.
mastodon.coffee ⧉ is a small independent Mastodon server founded by coffee lovers

Mastodon is most popular type of Fediverse server. It features a solid Twitter-style interface, regularly updated features and a large selection of mobile apps.

To get an idea of what’s involved in running your own social media server, see here for an in-depth article about making a Mastodon server in 10 steps.

Mastodon managed hosting is available from masto.host ⧉, spacebear.ee ⧉ and Weingärtner ⧉

Pixelfed ⧉

Screenshot from the Pixelfed social network, showing a stream of photos all with a night theme, such as buildings floodlit at night, a harbour at night, skyscrapers lit at night etc.

Pixelfed is an Instagram-style social network, mainly built around sharing photos and short video clips, but it’s possible to follow text accounts too.

Pixelfed managed hosting is available from spacebear.ee ⧉ and Weingärtner ⧉

PeerTube ⧉

Screenshot of a PeerTube server called VidCommons.org which has public domain and creative commons films and videos. The examples shown are mostly animations and documentaries.
VidCommons.org ⧉ is a PeerTube server that features public domain and creative commons videos

PeerTube is the Fediverse’s main video sharing service, with an interface somewhat like YouTube. It uses clever “peer to peer” technology to allow even small servers to have millions of views without getting overloaded. Also includes livestreaming as an option.

PeerTube managed hosting is available from spacebear.ee ⧉, Cloud68.co ⧉ and Weingärtner ⧉

Write Freely ⧉

A Medium-style blogging platform for long text articles. The interface is deliberately minimalist, it’s all about reading text with as few distractions as possible.

Write Freely managed hosting is available from WriteFreely.host ⧉, spacebear.ee ⧉ and Cloud68.co ⧉

Funkwhale ⧉

A music platform for the Fediverse, it lets people store and share tracks and podcasts.

Funkwhale managed hosting is available from Cloud68.co ⧉ and Weingärtner ⧉

BookWyrm ⧉

The Fediverse’s literary side, BookWyrm is a social reading platform where you can review books or discuss them, and discover other people’s recommendations.

BookWyrm managed hosting is available from BookWyrm’s own developers ⧉