What is Lobsters used for?

Lobsters is the Rails codebase behind Lobsters, a computing-focused link aggregation and discussion community, open source so users can inspect and improve the site. It is a good fit for studying a long-running Rails codebase and contributing to the Lobsters community site.

Is Lobsters open source?

Yes. Lobsters is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at lobsters/lobsters and is written mainly in Ruby.

Yes. Lobsters is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

Can I self-host Lobsters?

Yes. Lobsters can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Lobsters an alternative to?

Lobsters is an open-source alternative to Reddit. Other open-source alternatives to Reddit include Discourse, Forem and Lemmy.

Is Lobsters actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Lobsters was on 1 October 2026. The project has 4.8k stars on GitHub.

Lobsters: open-source alternative to Reddit

About Lobsters

This repository holds the source code of Lobsters, a computing-focused community built around link aggregation and discussion. It is a Rails application that uses SQL for storage, with SQLite in production, and is open source as part of the project's commitment to transparency.

The code has been used to run sister sites, but the main aim is to let people understand and improve the site itself. Contributors are asked to read the CONTRIBUTING file for setup, and a chat room usually has someone familiar with the code. The team describes a conservative philosophy: use Rails features over custom code, avoid new production services and external dependencies, and self-host from the VPS up.

Lobsters began on Rails 3.2.2 in 2012 and is run as a volunteer project with a long time horizon. Tests focus on core functionality, and the team accepts occasional downtime for large changes. It is the codebase of a specific community site rather than a general-purpose product, so it mainly interests developers who want to study or contribute to it.

Key features

Link aggregation with threaded discussion
Rails application with SQLite in production
Self-hosted from the VPS up
Moderation tooling for site moderators
Open codebase with contribution guide

Good fit for

→Studying a long-running Rails codebase
→Contributing to the Lobsters community site

Built with: Ruby; Rails
Tags: link-aggregator; forum; community; ruby; rails; sqlite; discussion; open-source

Lobsters: questions and answers

What is Lobsters used for?: Lobsters is the Rails codebase behind Lobsters, a computing-focused link aggregation and discussion community, open source so users can inspect and improve the site. It is a good fit for studying a long-running Rails codebase and contributing to the Lobsters community site.
Is Lobsters open source?: Yes. Lobsters is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at lobsters/lobsters and is written mainly in Ruby.
Is Lobsters free?: Yes. Lobsters is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
Can I self-host Lobsters?: Yes. Lobsters can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Lobsters an alternative to?: Lobsters is an open-source alternative to Reddit. Other open-source alternatives to Reddit include Discourse, Forem and Lemmy.
Is Lobsters actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Lobsters was on 1 October 2026. The project has 4.8k stars on GitHub.