diaspora*

Privacy-minded, distributed social network made of independent servers called pods, which you can join or run on your own hardware.

13.7k stars, 2.9k forks Ruby On GitHub since September 2010

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it
Development has slowed down. No commits in the last 90 days; the latest on 28 July 2026. Active alternatives: Discourse, HumHub, Mastodon.

diaspora* at a glance

Open sourceYes, AGPL-3.0No paid parts in the repository
Health28 of 100Slowing down
Self-hostingDockerOne-click in YunoHost
Interface66 languagesIncluding English, German and French
Issue repliesWithin ~2 hoursMedian first reply; 67% of recent issues answered

What is diaspora*?

diaspora* is a social network spread across many independently run servers, known as pods, that connect to one another. People do not need to install anything to take part: they can open an account on one of the public pods listed by the project. Those who want to keep their data under their own control can set up a pod themselves using the official installation guides, which also cover trial and development setups. Separate FAQs exist for users, pod administrators and developers, and the interface is available in 66 languages.

Good fit if

  • You want a self-hosted social network for friends or a community without handing data to an advertising platform.
  • Your members need an interface in a language other than English, given the wide translation coverage.

Look elsewhere if

  • You want a federated network with more active development and a larger user base: Mastodon or Misskey.
  • Your community is organized around topics and votes rather than personal feeds: Lemmy.

Before you adopt it

diaspora* is licensed under AGPL-3.0, so a pod running modified code must offer its source to users; the repository has no paid parts. Activity is slowing: there were no commits in the last 90 days, the last one landed in July 2026, and the latest release is v0.9.1.0 from April 2026. Check the project's pace before committing to it, and weigh the active alternatives above. A Docker setup is provided, and the compose file lists Redis, PostgreSQL and MySQL among its four services.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 7 November 2026. Report a correction

How to run diaspora* yourself

One-click install

Not listed in Umbrel, TrueNAS, Unraid, CasaOS, Runtipi, Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts and Coolify. Checked against each panel’s app catalog on 12 November 2026.

Ways to install

Docker files
Dockerfile or compose file in the repository
Compose file
docker/develop/docker-compose.yml: 4 services (redis, postgres, mysql)
Setup effort
3 of 5, judged from the compose file
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
66 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish
Show all 66

Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Irish, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Nepali, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Occitan, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Western Frisian, Wolof, Yiddish

Install instructions: diasporafoundation.org or the README on GitHub.

diaspora* health: is it still maintained?

28 of 100, slowing down

Release rhythm1 release in 12 monthsLatest: v0.9.1.0, 7 April 2026
Issue repliesWithin ~2 hoursMedian first reply; 67% of recent issues answered
Bus factorNo recent commitsNobody committed in the last 90 days
  • Activity
    No commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 28 July 2026.
    0 / 30
  • Contributors
    Nobody committed in the last 90 days.
    0 / 20
  • Releases
    1 release in the last 12 months; the latest, v0.9.1.0, on 7 April 2026.
    7 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 67% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 2 hours.
    17 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 4.3 of 10.
    4 / 10

Read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. How the score works

diaspora* security

Security advisories are the vulnerabilities the maintainers disclosed on GitHub, with the versions that fix them; many advisories can mean careful disclosure as much as weak code. OpenSSF Scorecard checks how a project is developed and released: reviews, protected branches, pinned dependencies, signed releases. It does not audit the code itself.

Security advisoriesNone publishedNo advisories in the repository’s Security tab
OpenSSF Scorecard4.3 of 10How the project is built and released
Security policyYesExplains how to report a vulnerability

What each Scorecard check found

  • Binary files10 / 10No compiled binaries checked into the repository
  • Dangerous workflows10 / 10No risky patterns in GitHub Actions
  • License file10 / 10A license file is present
  • Security policy10 / 10Explains how to report a vulnerability
  • Code review4 / 10Some changes are merged without review
  • Best-practices badge0 / 10No OpenSSF Best Practices badge
  • Fuzzing0 / 10No fuzz testing found
  • Maintained0 / 10Little or no activity in the last 90 days
  • Pinned dependencies0 / 10Dependencies are not pinned to fixed versions
  • Static analysis0 / 10No static analysis found
  • Token permissions0 / 10CI tokens have broad write rights

Advisories read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. From the OpenSSF Scorecard of 9 November 2026; checks that do not apply to diaspora* are left out.

diaspora* license: is it open source?

diaspora* uses AGPL-3.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. September 2010First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayAGPL-3.0.

diaspora* for developers

Written in

  • Ruby 64%
  • JavaScript 21%
  • Haml 5%
  • Gherkin 4%
  • SCSS 3%
  • Other 3%

Getting involved

Help wanted21Open, labelled “help wanted”Contributing guideYesCONTRIBUTING.mdOpen issues408On GitHub
Authors, 90 daysNoneNo commits in the last 90 days

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

Alternatives to diaspora*

  • DiscourseA platform for community discussion. Free, open, simple. 73 health · GPL-2.0 · 48.1k stars
  • HumHubHumHub is an Open Source Enterprise Social Network. Easy to install, intuitive to use and extendable with… 81 health · AGPL-3.0 · 6.8k stars
  • MastodonYour self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community 88 health · AGPL-3.0 · 50.6k stars
  • PixelFedPhoto Sharing. For Everyone. 80 health · AGPL-3.0 · 7.1k stars
  • AnswerA Q&A platform software for teams at any scales. Whether it's a community forum, help center, or knowledge… 68 health · Apache-2.0 · 15.7k stars

All 18 projects in Social networks & forums

Questions about diaspora*

Is diaspora* open source?

Yes. diaspora* is published under AGPL-3.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is diaspora* still maintained?

Its health score is 28 of 100 (slowing down). It had no commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 28 July 2026, and its latest release came out on 7 April 2026.

How do I run diaspora*?

You can run it with Docker and in one click from YunoHost. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What is diaspora* written in?

diaspora* is written mainly in Ruby (64% of the code), with JavaScript (21%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is diaspora* available in?

The repository has interface translations for 66 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Russian.

What are the alternatives to diaspora*?

Close alternatives in the Social networks & forums category include Discourse, HumHub, Mastodon.