What is hatsu?

Hatsu is a self-hosted ActivityPub bridge that enables static websites to participate in the Fediverse. It acts on behalf of a static site, accepting follow requests from Fediverse users, pushing new posts to followers' timelines, and receiving replies to backfeed to the static site. Unlike similar tools, Hatsu uses RSS/Atom/JSON feeds as its data source instead of requiring microformats2 markup, and it fully automates the process without manual Webmention sending. Written in Rust for high performance, it supports SQLite or PostgreSQL databases and provides Docker, binary, and NixOS installation methods. The project is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and uses the same ActivityPub federation library as Lemmy, ensuring compatibility with Mastodon (including authorized fetch), GoToSocial, and Pleroma.

Should you self-host hatsu?

hatsu scores 45/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #5 of 5 in Fediverse. It has 258 GitHub stars.

It shipped 2 stable releases in the past year. The latest, v0.3.5, came out on 1 October 2026. New versions land roughly every 10 months.

Setup is moderate: expect some configuration beyond a single command. An official Docker image is available. It is AGPL-3.0-licensed and written mostly in Rust.

Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is Misskey (74/100, 11 365 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See hatsu vs Misskey side by side.