Alternatives / Reddit
Looking for an open source Reddit alternative? We found one open source platform: Lemmy, a federated link aggregator and forum with communities, voting, and moderation. It runs on many independent servers, so audiences are much smaller than Reddit's.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Lemmy | Federated communities with voting and moderation | AGPL-3.0 |
We looked for open-source platforms that cover Reddit's core: topic communities, link and text posts, comments, and voting. We verified the project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its repository. Only one project met these criteria, so this page covers a single alternative and is clear about what it does and does not replace. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Lemmy has communities on many independent servers that federate with each other, but the total audience and content volume are small compared with Reddit. Discovery can be harder because communities are spread across servers.
Lemmy is a self-hosted, ad-free forum and link aggregator that connects communities across the fediverse using ActivityPub, with upvote and downvote scoring, moderation tools, and federation. Accounts on one server can follow and comment in communities on others.
Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted with Docker or Ansible. You can join an existing instance or run your own, and running a public instance means handling moderation and legal responsibilities.
Lemmy's repository had commits within days of this update, and it has about 14,600 stars.
Reddit is a proprietary platform run by a single company that controls moderation policy, API access, and monetization, and that has changed its terms and pricing for third-party apps. A federated alternative lets you choose or run your own server, follow communities across servers, and avoid depending on one company's decisions, at the cost of a much smaller audience.
Lemmy is an AGPL-3.0, self-hosted, ad-free forum and link aggregator that connects communities across the fediverse using ActivityPub, with upvote and downvote scoring, moderation tools, and federation. It can be deployed with Docker or Ansible, and you can join an existing server or run your own.
Pricing: Free and open source; run your own server or join an existing instance.
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Federation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lemmy | Link aggregator and forum | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | ActivityPub |
Want Reddit-style communities without one owner
Lemmy federates communities across independent servers using ActivityPub, with voting and moderation tools.
Want to host your own community platform
Lemmy is AGPL-3.0 and self-hostable with Docker or Ansible, with no ads.
Want to follow communities from several servers
A Lemmy account can follow and comment on communities hosted on other federated servers.