Lemmy

Federated link aggregator in the style of Reddit, where communities on separate self-hosted servers share posts, votes and comments.

14.7k stars, 978 forks Rust On GitHub since February 2019

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

Lemmy at a glance

Open sourceYes, AGPL-3.0No paid parts in the repository
Health74 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingDockerOne-click in YunoHost and Unraid
InterfaceEnglish onlyNo translation files found
Issue repliesWithin ~21 hoursMedian first reply; 79% of recent issues answered

What is Lemmy?

Lemmy is a link aggregator and discussion site: members subscribe to communities, submit links or text posts, vote them up or down and reply in comment threads that update live. Each server is independent, yet servers federate over the Fediverse, so an account on one instance can join communities hosted on another. Admins and community moderators set their own rules, with a public moderation log, post locking, stickies and bans. Other features include private messages, email notifications, RSS and Atom feeds, cross-posting and a duplicate post search. The server is written in Rust with Actix and Diesel, and it runs on arm64 boards such as the Raspberry Pi.

Good fit if

  • You want a Reddit-style community whose rules and data you control, without being cut off from other instances.
  • You run topic communities where link sharing and voting matter more than long threaded essays.
  • You want to host on modest hardware, including ARM single-board computers.

Look elsewhere if

  • You need a classic, self-contained forum with categories rather than a federated network: Discourse or NodeBB.
  • Your audience prefers short public posts and timelines over voted threads: Mastodon.
  • You are building a question and answer site for a team or product: Answer.

Before you adopt it

Lemmy is released under AGPL-3.0, so anyone running a modified server for others must share the changes. No paid parts exist in the repository; funding comes from donations and an NLnet grant. Nine authors committed in the last 90 days, and the LemmyNet organization maintains the code, with the latest release, 0.19.21, out in October 2026. Deployment uses Docker or Ansible; the compose file starts five services, including PostgreSQL and a proxy.

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 Lemmy yourself

One-click install

Not listed in Umbrel, TrueNAS, 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/docker-compose.yml: 5 services (proxy, postgres)
Setup effort
3 of 5, judged from the compose file
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Packages
AUR and Alpine versions on Repology
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
English only

Install instructions: join-lemmy.org or the README on GitHub. Docker images and packages are checked weekly.

Lemmy health: is it still maintained?

74 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~46 daysLatest: 0.19.21, 26 October 2026
Issue repliesWithin ~21 hoursMedian first reply; 79% of recent issues answered
Bus factorLow riskThe most active of 9 authors wrote 45% of recent commits
  • Activity
    58 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 10 November 2026.
    21 / 30
  • Contributors
    9 people wrote the 58 commits of the last 90 days; the most active wrote 45% of them.
    13 / 20
  • Releases
    7+ releases in the last 12 months; the latest, 0.19.21, on 26 October 2026.
    17 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 79% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 21 hours.
    18 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 5.3 of 10.
    5 / 10

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

Lemmy 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 advisories31 published3 high; 14 list a fixed version
OpenSSF Scorecard5.3 of 10How the project is built and released
Security policyYesExplains how to report a vulnerability
Signed releasesNoDownloads cannot be checked against a signature

Latest advisories

All 31 advisories on GitHub

What each Scorecard check found

  • Binary files10 / 10No compiled binaries checked into the repository
  • License file10 / 10A license file is present
  • Maintained10 / 10Steady commits and issue activity in the last 90 days
  • Security policy10 / 10Explains how to report a vulnerability
  • Code review9 / 10Some changes are merged without review
  • Best-practices badge0 / 10No OpenSSF Best Practices badge
  • Fuzzing0 / 10No fuzz testing found
  • Pinned dependencies0 / 10Dependencies are not pinned to fixed versions
  • Signed releases0 / 10Releases are not signed
  • Static analysis0 / 10No static analysis found

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

Lemmy license: is it open source?

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

  1. February 2019First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayAGPL-3.0.

Lemmy for developers

Written in

  • Rust 79%
  • PLpgSQL 13%
  • TypeScript 7%
  • Shell 1%
  • Dockerfile <1%
  • Other <1%

Getting involved

Good first issues12Open, labelled “extra: good first issue”Help wanted4Open, labelled “extra: help wanted”
Contributing guideNot foundNo CONTRIBUTING file in the repository
Open issues113On GitHub
Authors, 90 days9Of 58 commits
Donations2 waysPatreon, Liberapay

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

Alternatives to Lemmy

  • MastodonYour self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community 88 health · AGPL-3.0 · 50.6k stars
  • MisskeyA completely free and open interplanetary-microblogging platform 81 health · AGPL-3.0 · 11.4k stars
  • PixelFedPhoto Sharing. For Everyone. 80 health · AGPL-3.0 · 7.1k stars
  • RedlibPrivate front-end for Reddit 50 health · AGPL-3.0 · 4k stars
  • DiscourseA platform for community discussion. Free, open, simple. 73 health · GPL-2.0 · 48.1k stars

All 18 projects in Social networks & forums

Questions about Lemmy

Is Lemmy open source?

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

Is Lemmy still maintained?

Its health score is 74 of 100 (actively developed). It had 58 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 10 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 26 October 2026.

How do I run Lemmy?

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

What is Lemmy written in?

Lemmy is written mainly in Rust (79% of the code), with PLpgSQL (13%) and TypeScript (7%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What are the alternatives to Lemmy?

Close alternatives in the Social networks & forums category include Mastodon, Misskey, PixelFed.