# Mastodon vs nginx-love

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | Mastodon | nginx-love |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82/100 ✓ | 50/100 |
| Rank in category | #2 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #3 of 3 in Web Application Firewall |
| GitHub stars | 50 456 ✓ | 312 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +136 ✓ | +0 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 38 ✓ | 1 |
| Latest release | v4.4.26 · 1 Oct 2026 ✓ | v4.01 · 31 Oct 2025 |
| Setup | Advanced | Moderate ✓ |
| Official Docker image | Yes ✓ | No |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Ruby | Typescript |

## Which one should you pick?

Mastodon scores 82/100 against 50/100 for nginx-love, so it is the safer default.

Mastodon ships more often: 38 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for nginx-love.

If you want the quickest setup, nginx-love is easier to run; Mastodon needs more configuration.

Mastodon is growing faster right now (+136 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [Mastodon](https://selfhost.directory/project/mastodon) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/mastodon.md)
- [nginx-love](https://selfhost.directory/project/nginx-love) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/nginx-love.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/mastodon-vs-nginx-love