I plan to end my Facebook account before January 19. I like the format and would like something similar in the Fediverse. Also, I need a good Facebook alternative I can show people when trying to convince them to leave Facebook.
So what is the best Facebook alternative as of 2025? Frendica, Diaspora or Pleroma? Or something new and promising?
Honestly, no. You don’t need any sort of Facebook replacement.
I’m going to tell you my core problem, just to get some feedback/vent a little: i’ve wanted to end my Facebook account since Cambridge Analytica. I hate the feed. But Facebook has one key thing keeping me locked in at the moment - Events.
Back in the pre and early Facebook stages, there were websites that had well-curated, broadish event calendars for my city. These are now universally dead. Websites dedicated to the local music scene? Also pretty much dead (RIP punkottawa.com). Some have tried to get something going independently in later stages, but all have failed. Even my favourite college radio station, which has folks super tied into the community and local music scene and plug stuff on the air frequently, has pretty much abandoned their community events calendar. The problem gets worse if I’m travelling outside of the city, in that I have no clue where to even start looking effectively outside of Facebook (@ me, Montrealers and Torontonians in particular). Stuff like bandsintown is ok, but misses a lot when you’re more into bar gigs than concerts
I’ve yet to find a non-Facebook approach that captures events I’d be interested in that doesn’t miss something. RSS feeds from websites for known gig spaces (either natively or with a web2rss thing) can get part of the way there, but there’s been cases of stuff happening at new/unexpected venues (a hot sauce store here, at some point, became a gig venue) that I’ve only found out about via Facebook. And this ignoring non-music related stuff that occasionally comes up serendipitously.
I’ve yet to come up with a great solution, and that kinda ticks me off.
Even if you find an alternative it might not help you if not all the others would follow, too, and you could find the type of content and contacts you currently have in FB on that other platform.
Same problem with many social networks that became toxic, but that can’t be replaced easily, because in other, better places, you might not find the same content and contacts.
Not just public events but private ones too. I just invited 30 people to an event this month. There’s a lot of people in there that I don’t contact enough on a regular basis to get their email. It’s really tough to put something like this together without Facebook these days
I just don’t go places
I wish that gained some traction.
I also wish it had a name that is easy to intuit a pronunciation.
Thanks Blaze! This looks really interesting. Network effect is a factor in what I’m bitching about, but we’ve got OK enough general fediverse participation where I am that this could be/get real useful for me.
Appreciate it, and what you do to promote fediverse stuff in general. Said it before and I’ll say it again - you’re doing good work.
You are on Lemmy and you are leaving Facebook, you don’t need anything else, you’ve got everything already.
Mewe
Friendica is probably the best choice. It’s the most popular with the most servers and users, and is explicitly designed to be like facebook, and uses Activitypub.
Pleroma, judging from the FAQ; strives to be more like twitter. And as for diaspora, it uses its own protocol, so i’m not sure if it can federate with software that uses activitypub.
The issue is going to be: what are my friends already using? Can I find and friend all my new acquaintances on this platform?
It’s not so much whether or not it has the capacity to be a great service, it’s what is the current population on the service? That’s what people are really asking.
If there’s not millions on it already, most are going to pass on it.
We’re on Lemmy, that puts us a bit outside of that perspective, but that’s still going to be your fat middle of the bell curve on peoples willingness to move.
That’s generally how all services start out, though. It sucks, but you can’t just wait for a platform to get big, you have to actually use it, you have to be the change you want to see.
A big advantage of federation too is that all platforms can interact with eachother; a user on mastodon can interact with this post on lemmy, an iceshrimp user can interact with users on bonfire; etc etc. Platforms on the fediverse have the advantage of not needing to start from scratch.
And, there is nothing stopping them from using facebook alongside friendica, i use redlib when lemmy doesn’t have a community i’m interested in, for example (although i definitely main on lemmy). we don’t have to completely stop from using a platform, both is fine :)
Maybe blue sky? I’ve seen quite a few family/friends move lately and it’s made subscribing to them via mastodon/mastodon adjacent like GoToSocial workable.
A microblog app is not what I’m looking for.
GL!
I wish Friendica had an iOS client
Friendica is compatible with mastodon’s api, so you can use the mastodon app. That’s the only way i think of on iOS :/
You can also use the website as a PWA, safari has partial PWA support
It’s so cool that in the fedi you have quite a few options for front ends/phone apps. Unlike other websites that charge for outside access.
Thanks! Yeah, I realized Pleroma isn’t what I was looking for.
Facebook Marketplace is my favorite part of Facebook. Thoughts about what might replace that?
Work in progress: https://codeberg.org/flohmarkt/flohmarkt
Nice!
Not ironically craigslist never went away in some places.
I think the number of scammers went way up though
That also applies to FB marketplace
Same here. A fediverse alternative seems like a no brainer. Weird if there are no commercial apps already… Probably an easy way to get VC.
Mercuri seems to be becoming more popular
Right up until it asks for ID, which you have to use the app for, and even if you send it nothing happens and your account remains disabled.
Ask me how I know. And that was for my very first purchase.
If they’re on facebook, they prolly want something as close to facebook as possible, and the only one I can think of is Nextdoor. Only problem is it’s mostly 50 year olds complaining about their neighboorhods’s minor problems or local contractors advertising themselves over and over again. Other than that, it’s pretty much facebook tit for tat without the zucc. But they got easy invite links so we could prolly change it for the better, even if that’s a massive pipedream
Only problem is it’s mostly 50 year olds complaining about their neighboorhods’s minor problems or local contractors advertising themselves over and over again.
This is basically what I’m looking for. For me its not a problem. Most of the active people on Facebook are boomers. And that’s also the biggest reason why I’ve been “forced” to use Facebook. And also because it’s been the default communication platform of all local communities I’ve been part of.
Just don’t use Facebook. Get your friends contact information and text/call/meme directly with them or in groups. You’ll find it a much more encouraging and rewarding experience if you connect with people instead of let some big company tell you how to engage with your friends and family.
Edit: I did not expect this thread to be so controversial. I suspect a lot of people really are not ready to give up Facebook.
That’s what they’re doing, though? They’re leaving facebook, and looking for an corpoless alternative.
I need
No you don’t
What do you hope to gain from leaving one Facebook to join another Facebook? Break the addiction. Free yourself from needing this in your life.
A social media platform to keep up with friends/family, while arguable not great (for comparison reasons), it not at all the same as what Facebook is right now. Facebook is no longer what it was originally created to be, it is just a dopamine slow drip.
Like people already wrote, FB is not used anymore to share your vacation and see your friends food plates. Me and about everybody around me are using FB for Marketplace (big here, about the only platform used to buy/sell), and for all kind of groups, being for hobbies like RC cars, Astronomy, Funko Pop, RVing, Painting, Costco, whatever, etc.
I have not posted a pic or a thought on FB for years, nor really read something from my hundred friends there in my FB feed, but I go there about everyday to browse my groups.
It’s not as good as old forums about your car brand/model etc, but it is happening there now.
If you want to replace FB for friends/family/picture/events, no clue, maybe IG lol
Facebook’s selling point is that your friends are already on it. If you want to convince random people, you have to show them what they’ll be joining.
By that measure, there is no fediverse equivalent. You might be able to convince your friends to join for their favorite content creators, but if anything they’re probably on Mastodon.
Facebook’s selling point is that your friends are already on it. If you want to convince random people, you have to show them what they’ll be joining.
Well, that’s why I’m asking.
OfferUp is really the only FBM replacement out there. I’m just assuming that’s 1/2 of what keeps most people around. The other being that messenger, in spite of its complete lack of privacy, still hosts the largest bulk of people, for finding acquaintances and such if needed.
Signal or WIRE should be the obvious replacement for the latter but our Congress working efficiently and effectively for the people is an easier task than moving a single individual off messenger and into Signal or WIRE. You’ll probably have to no contact people on text to get them to switch.
Can’t access OfferUp because I’m not in the US. What’s special about it? Is it on fediverse?
In Sweden, the most popular alternatives to FBM are Blocket and Tradera/ebay. But they’re all commercial and not on fediverse.
What do you think of Matrix based messaging apps? Seems like a better alternative to Signal and Wire. Depending on what server you’re using.
Yeah offer up I’ve seen more “deals” than fb Marketplace in the past. Almost the same level of engagement.
Is anyone using the federated Flohmarkt app to buy/sell used stuff?
I’ve heard of it just now.
It’s pretty new iirc and very rough
