corednsvsMastodon
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| coredns | Mastodon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76/100 | 82/100 |
| Rank in category | #5 of 41 in DNS | #2 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums |
| GitHub stars | 14 400 | 50 458 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +60 | +139 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 10 | 38 |
| Latest release | v1.15.0 · 21 Oct 2026 | v4.4.26 · 1 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Advanced |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Go | Ruby |
Which one should you pick?
Mastodon scores 82/100 against 76/100 for coredns, so it is the safer default.
Mastodon ships more often: 38 stable releases in the past year, against 10 for coredns.
If you want the quickest setup, coredns is easier to run; Mastodon needs more configuration.
Mastodon is growing faster right now (+139 stars in 30 days).
coredns details →Mastodon details →
Swap a project
Keep coredns, compare it with
Keep Mastodon, compare it with