Mastodonvs
Bumble
Bumble: Make the first move
Mastodon
Social networking that's not for sale
As of 30 August 2026, Mastodon is free to use. Mastodon is a decentralized, open-source social network that's part of the Fediverse. Softwr lists it under Dating. Mastodon is made by Mastodon gGmbH, launched in 2016, available on iOS, Android, Web.
Overview
What Mastodon does
Mastodon is a decentralized, open-source social network that's part of the Fediverse. Instead of a single company controlling the platform, Mastodon consists of thousands of independent servers (instances) that can communicate with each other. Users choose servers based on community and moderation preferences.
What people use it for
- Decentralized social networking
- Community-owned discussion platforms
- Privacy-focused communication infrastructure
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Mastodon.
- No pricing model required; users host their own instances at infrastructure cost
- Decentralized funding model relies on voluntary donations with no guaranteed revenue
- Self-hosting requires technical expertise and operational overhead for smaller communities
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Mastodon
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- MastodonvsHinge
Hinge: Designed to be deleted
- MastodonvsMatch.com
Match.com: Start something real
- MastodonvsOkCupid
OkCupid: Dating deserves better
Pricing
What Mastodon costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Toots
- Federation
- Custom Instances
Capabilities
Features
Decentralization
Custom Servers
No Ads
Chronological Feed
Content Warnings
Federation
ActivityPub
Integration with ActivityPub
Fediverse
Integration with Fediverse
Ios support
Available on ios
Android support
Available on android
Web support
Available on web
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does Mastodon charge any fees to join or use the platform?
No, Mastodon is free and open-source software developed by a non-profit organization. Users can join existing servers or host their own without software licensing fees.
SourceHow is Mastodon development funded?
Mastodon is developed by a non-profit and accepts optional voluntary donations through Patreon and direct Stripe donations. These are presented as support contributions rather than required fees.
SourceWhat are typical costs for self-hosting a Mastodon instance?
Mastodon website does not publish hosting costs. Self-hosting requires paying for cloud infrastructure (VPS, storage, bandwidth) through providers like AWS, DigitalOcean, or Linode, with costs varying by instance size and user count.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Mastodon
- Company
- Mastodon gGmbH
- Based in
- Berlin, Germany
Keep looking
Where to go from Mastodon
- Mastodon alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Mastodon pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Mastodon badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Dating softwareThe full category
- Best Dating softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Dating software for
Compare Mastodon with
- Bumble
- Hinge
- Bluesky
- Taimi
- Feeld
- Grindr
- Clubhouse
- Lunchclub
- Muzz
- Geneva
- JDate
- Lox Club
- Match.com
- Lunchclub
- Muzz
- OkCupid
Other Dating software
The world's largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people
Free, then $19.99/mo14 researched notesA members-only dating app for Jews with ridiculously high standards
From $36/mo8 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Mastodon, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Mastodon
Mastodon alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Mastodon pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Mastodon
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Mastodon badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Dating software alternatives
Quality over quantity
Make the first move
