Open-source VK alternatives

Mastodon is a social network server, free and open source, that runs on the ActivityPub standard so users can follow friends and find new accounts. People can publish links, pictures, text and video. Every Mastodon server is interoperable with the others as a federated network, and it can also communicate with other software that implements ActivityPub. It is written in Ruby and released under the AGPL-3.0 license.

Features include real-time, chronological timeline updates, media attachments for images and videos, and safety and moderation tools such as private posts, locked accounts, filters for phrases, muting and blocking, plus reporting and moderation. Mastodon acts as an OAuth2 provider with a REST API and a Streaming API, which has produced a rich ecosystem of third-party apps.

The software belongs to the Fediverse, which is built on open standards and avoids vendor lock-in. The backend uses Ruby on Rails with PostgreSQL, and an official container image is available. You can run your own server or join an existing one, so it suits communities, organizations and individuals who want control over their social platform.

diaspora is an open-source, decentralized social network that emphasizes privacy and user ownership of data. Instead of a single company running the service, it is made up of many independently operated servers, called pods, that are connected to each other and share content across the network.

People can join without installing anything by creating an account on one of the open servers, with guidance available on finding a suitable home. Those who want full control of their data can run their own pod using the installation guides, and FAQs are available for users, pod administrators and developers.

The software is written in Ruby on Rails and released under AGPL-3.0. Development is community-driven, with code, translations, bug reports and ideas all welcomed, and contributors are expected to follow the project's code of conduct. A SECURITY.md file explains how to report vulnerabilities responsibly.