However, they tend to be a little messy and not easily skimmable. I also wanted to focus on Fediverse alternatives to existing services, although I do like the idea of going on beyond what is offered by current social media.

So, inspired by this discussion (and others), I thought a curated list of the main alternatives (with beginner-friendly sites) might be handy (especially with a potential influx of new users):

Reddit/threadiverse:

Lemmy
kbin

Twitter:

Social networks (Facebook, Google+):

Friendica - works as a hub and publishing platform connected to the Fediverse and beyond (Twitter, Tumblr, etc)
diaspora* - Friendica is technically part of diaspora*
Socialhome

Instagram:

PixelFed

YouTube:

PeerTube

WhatsApp:

Matrix - not as interconnected as the core ActivityPub services but it integrates well with Lemmy to provide secure DMs (just add your Matrix ID into your Lemmy profile)

Media hosting (Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud, DeviantArt):

MediaGoblin - are there public instances you can join?

Blogs:

Write.as/Write Freely
Plume

Activity planning (Facebook events):

Goodreads:

BookWyrm

Dropbox/Drive/Collaboration

Nextcloud
Owncloud - Nextcloud is a fork

LinkedIn:

Polywork

Linktree:

Linkstack

Music:

Funkwhale

Podcasts:

Castopod

Delicious:

Postmarks

Dating apps:

Alovoa - not yet part of the Fediverse but it's planned

Pinterest:

Pinetta - still early days there but as people have asked before

Search engine (although not federated themselves they search big chunks of the Fediverse):

Lemmyverse
Fedi-search - Lemmy, kbin, Mastodon and PeerTube
Lemmy Search

And if you need some more background then try the Fediverse New User Orientation.

Illustrations from Wikipedia

all 25 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] ruud 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nice list. I prefer calckey over misskey. (I run calckey.world)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Good catch, I've corrected my oversight.

[–] s4if 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Cool!, but the fedi software is not just that (especially #twitterverse ones). There are:

Gotosocial -> a small server first fediverse-server apps. You can spun it with just $4 vps and get a dedicates instance with features comparable to Mastodon.
Snac2 -> a smaller fediverse server apps, it even use less resources than Gotosocial, but the UI is so oldschool.
Microblog.pub -> a python-based single user focused server apps for tinkerers. It fully compatible with Fediverse/Mastodon with nice ui.

I tried all of them and still use both Gotosocial and and Snac2 instances daily, and they are a nice piece of software for their own use-case. Granted, all of these list above is not straightforward to use, but can you add that on advanced category. It feels unfair if it just the usual trio (Mastodon, Misskey/Calkey, Pleroma/Akkoma) that has exposure in the forum. thx.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

but the fedi software is not just that

Indeed. This is, at best, scratching the surface. My aim was to create a list that ticked most of these boxes:

Alternatives to existing services - this is a question that comes up often so I thought there might as well be a list of the popular ones.
Relatively well developed and simple to use.
Has a user-friendly website that makes it easy for ordinary users to jump onboard (why Hubzilla didn't make the list)

Granted, all of these list above is not straightforward to use, but can you add that on advanced category.

That's where posts like yours come in useful - my list is just the easy on-ramp and then people can add in great resources like that which help people push on and do more. It's kind of where I'll be going next in my journey, so I am grateful for the post. If you, or anyone else, have more advanced services them keep them coming.

[–] kratoz29 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm ready to witness Lemmy and Kbin conquer them all 😈

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

When Google+ shut,.I moved to diaspora and didn't do very much with it.

When the great Twitter exodus happened, I signed up to Mastodon and didn't get this federated business so wandered off.

Now with the API apocalypse at Reddit, I am here and I get it. It now all makes sense to me and I've been seeing how federated I can get, which is the background to ye research that went into the initial post. And the answer is "pretty federated" as everything is playing nicely with each other. In fact, I am feeling borderline evangelical as this feels like the Internet I've been waiting for since the late 80s/early 90. So let's skip Web 3.0 and move on to 4.0 where everything is federated!

[–] amanaftermidnight 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is actually 3.0. dirty cryptobros stole the number from us and did it dirty.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Let's just hope that we get 20 back from the Kaiser before we hit that number.

[–] CaptainSpaceman 1 points 9 months ago

Dickety!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Me too. When I first looked at Mastodon I was like “oh those addresses are weird that will never work” for some lame, resistant to change reason. Now I’m like “bring on the alphabet soup links and whatever quirks I don’t care, the fediverse is awesome!.”

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Me too. And I was all "there are different servers with different groups on them? Like that's going to work!" But it does. In fact, it can be seen as a strength.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah, diaspora, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a very long time. I tried it and got nowhere because nobody else I knew was ever going to go there and making friends is already a Herculean enough task for me as it is

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My first introduction to this whole thing was Diaspora* during its development and eventual launch. It was such a nice departure from the usual big social media apps, so I’m kind of sad that there isn’t more “connection” between it and what’s going on now. It almost seems like it’s on its own island.

[–] velvetinetouch 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I also was on diaspora, it was cool for a while actually, not a ton of users but quite a bit of activity. Seemed to dry up though and seems like they were having spam and technical problems. Any idea what it's like today?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Friendica is part of diaspora* and it seems to be doing OK. This will be something I'll be looking into over the next week.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It’s still pretty much identical to how it was. There’s an iOS app now, but I’m not sure how much development goes on with it (which is unfortunate).

I loved it as a FB replacement, and still prefer it, but it seems like it’s not quite as busy as other places in the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I went to diaspora after Google+ was shut down but didn't end up doing very much on there.

Doing the research has made we want to go and dust off the old account, if I can find it. However, I might sign up with Friendica for a new start. Probably look into that this weekend.

[–] Venicon 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t think it’s on the fediverse but Squabbles has been a terrific Reddit replacement for me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, from what I've read, it sounds like an easier concept for new users to get their head around (and so is definitely an option to throw into the ring) but it isn't part of the Fediverse. Not sure if that means it could just get bought up by one of the big conglemerates.

[–] mookulator 3 points 1 year ago

I was excited to learn about Mobilizon, but wow it’s crickets in there.

[–] assa123 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Do you know if there's a federated alternative to stackexchange? I've been pointed out to codidact but AFAIK they're not federated

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't know about OwnCast. I'll have to look into that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd love to hear your feedback as it looks like an interesting Twitch alternative. I didn't include it on the list as it doesn't look to be as straightforward to get streaming on it compared to the set-up of others on the list.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 2 points 1 year ago

I don't stream myself so I can't speak for that side of things, but just for watching streams the software seems fine but there's not much content. Same story as a lot of Fediverse systems.

Maybe once the Lemmy/kbin threaded Fediverse takes off (which I think has the potential to be the first federated network to eclipse its centralized counterparts) there can be some synergy with these other platforms that can help them get more users.