Self-host Twitter / X

Microblogging social network · Category: team chat & community

Twitter (now X) is the dominant short-form social platform. The self-hostable replacements are all federated (ActivityPub or AT Protocol) — you run your instance, your followers can come from any compatible server. Migration is one-way: you bring your archive in, your X followers don't follow you on the new instance unless they also create an account there.

Twitter / X pricing anchor: Free with ads; X Premium $8/mo; Premium+ $40/mo.

Mastodon mastodon/mastodon alive

GitHub: ★ 49.9k · last commit today · 4421 open issues
License: AGPL-3.0
Setup time: 1h docker-compose (Rails app + Postgres + Redis + Sidekiq + ElasticSearch)
Monthly cost: $10-20/mo VPS for a single-user / small instance; storage and bandwidth scale with media + federated cache.

Migration sketch. Use the official docker-compose at docs.joinmastodon.org. Twitter archive request (Settings → Your account → Download an archive of your data) yields a `tweets.js`. Run a community converter like `tweet-archive-to-mastodon` or `mastodon-twitter-archive` to post (or import as drafts) historical tweets respecting timestamps. Import follows from Twitter via the Movetodon helper if any of your follows have linked their Mastodon account in their X bio.

Good fit forUsers who want the closest Twitter-shaped experience with the largest existing federated user base.

Weak atStack weight — Mastodon is heavy compared to Misskey/Pleroma; small instances feel over-engineered.

Misskey misskey-dev/misskey alive

GitHub: ★ 11.2k · last commit today · 2482 open issues
License: AGPL-3.0
Setup time: 45min docker-compose (Node app + Postgres + Redis + Meilisearch)
Monthly cost: $10/mo VPS for a small instance.

Migration sketch. Pull the official compose from misskey-hub.net. Same Twitter-archive workflow: get the .zip, run a community import script (Misskey accepts Mastodon-style import format). Misskey's selling point is feature density — reactions, drive (file storage), pages, custom emoji, channels — all without giving up federation with Mastodon.

Good fit forUsers who want a richer, more app-like federated experience and don't mind being a smaller part of the Fediverse.

Weak atSmaller default network than Mastodon; some niche client apps don't support all Misskey features.

Pleroma pleroma/pleroma unknown

GitHub: ★ — · last commit unknown
License: AGPL-3.0
Setup time: 30min — single-binary Elixir release + Postgres
Monthly cost: $5/mo VPS for a personal instance — Pleroma is famously light.

Migration sketch. Install via the OTP release for your distro (docs.pleroma.social). Twitter archive import is community-driven — Mastodon-format import works since both speak ActivityPub. Pleroma federates with Mastodon transparently; your account is portable to other Pleroma or Mastodon instances if you migrate later.

Good fit forSingle-user instances on a tiny VPS; Pleroma's resource footprint is the lightest of the three.

Weak atSmaller community + slower release cadence than Mastodon; some moderation features are thinner.

In a terminal? npx os-alt twitter prints this table — how the CLI works →