Mastodon is a free and open source microblogging platform similar to X (formerly Twitter), but with user privacy and decentralization in mind. It’s one of many protocols that interacts with the Fediverse of protocols like Pleroma, GNU Social, and others. Unlike X, Mastodon is not one social network.
Getting started with Mastodon can be confusing for newcomers. Mastodon is a federated service. This means its similar to email. You can create an email account with many different providers. And that’s the same with Mastodon. The service lets you sign up to one of many sites that run Mastodon software, called instances. A user can communicate with other Mastodon users on different instances. The instances are themed – many by country, city, or interest.
Signup to Mastodon is simple. Just supply a username, email address and password and you’re set.
Mastodon is open source, so (unsurprisingly) developers have contributed several ways to set it up. You can run it as a software package on your server, or run it as a Docker image, or even as a Heroku service.
Here’s our verdict on the finest web-based Mastodon clients captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. They are all free and open source goodness.
Let’s explore the 6 web-based Mastodon clients. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources.
| Web-BasedMastodon Clients | |
|---|---|
| Elk | Nimble Mastodon web client |
| Sengi | Multi-account Mastodon and Pleroma desktop client |
| Phanpy | Minimalistic opinionated Mastodon web client |
| tooty | Fully static web application running in recent browsers |
| Lmst | Lightweight Mastodon web client with a clear, classic user interface |
| Pinafore | Alternative web client for Mastodon, focused on speed and simplicity |
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