Looking for greener pastures [A Practical Comparison of Mastodon and Micro.blog]
I've been looking into Twitter alternatives Mastodon and Micro.blog recently. I couldn't find a good comparison of the two services, so I created one and put it on GitHub to quickly iterate on any feedback. That's happened, so I'm posting the comparison here where it's easier to find. Enjoy!
A Practical Comparison of Mastodon and Micro.blog
Many of us are looking at Twitter alternatives and there are two services that stand out: Micro.blog and Mastodon.
These services take different approaches, so choosing one is challenging. This page highlights some of the differences and is meant for non-nerds who don't want to get bogged down by implementation details. Every attempt has been made to be accurate, but some technical details are deliberately glossed over.
For more about similar services, see the Comparison of microblogging services on Wikipedia
| Mastodon | Micro.blog | |
|---|---|---|
| Web site | https://joinmastodon.org/ | https://micro.blog/ |
| Sales pitch | "Social networking, back in your hands. Follow friends and discover new ones. Publish anything you want: links, pictures, text, video. All on a platform that is community-owned and ad-free." | "A network of independent microblogs. Short posts like tweets but on your own web site that you control. Micro.blog is a safe community for microblogs. A timeline to follow friends and discover new posts. Blog hosting built on open standards." |
| Best price | Free | Free, but requires a separate blog for posting |
| Actual price | Free | $5 per month, no blog needed |
| Harassment and abuse | https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/07/cage-the-mastodon/ | https://help.micro.blog/2018/twitter-differences/ |
| Code of conduct | Depends on the server (Example) | https://help.micro.blog/2017/community-guidelines/ |
| Privacy policy | Depends on the server | https://help.micro.blog/2018/privacy-policy/ |
| Hashtags in posts | Yes | No |
| Replies handled differently | No | Yes |
| Able to export content | Yes | Yes |
| Cross-posting to Twitter | No | Yes, with a $2/month or $5/month subscription |
| Import Twitter friends | Yes | No |
| Official iOS or Android app | No | iOS only |
| Official Mac or Windows app | No | Mac only |
| Third-party clients | Yes | Yes |
| Security | User name + password (2FA is optional) | Email address only |
Deliberately omitted from above: User counts, open source status, federation details
I'm not part of either project, so there may be mistakes in the table above. That's why this is on GitHub - please open an issue or send a pull request to correct any problems you find. If you are adding content, please do so for both platforms and link to your sources.
For other questions or to start a discussion, contact me on: