A beginner’s guide to Mastodon, the open source Twitter alternative

Unless you’re familiar with emerging platforms, you probably didn’t know what Mastodon was until Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it Over time, users would also try Bluesky or Instagram’s Threads app — but since Mastodon was founded in 2016, it’s had years to develop its own identity as more than just a Twitter alternative.

What is a mastodon?

Mastodon was founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugene Ruschko. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or any other popular social media site, Mastodon is a non-profit organization, meaning its ideal goal is to benefit the public, not shareholders.

At first glance, Mastodon may seem like a clone of Twitter, but the platform behind the microblogging platform is much more complex. The service is decentralized (no, not in a blockchain way), and describes itself as a “unified network that operates in a similar way to email.”

When you first create your account, you choose a server — similar to the way you choose to open an email account on Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or wherever — which creates your profile address. So, for example, if you sign up for Mastodon via the Climate Justice server, your address will be @[your username]@climatejustice.social. But no matter which server you sign up to, you’ll be able to communicate with users from any other server, just like how Gmail users email Hotmail users and vice versa. However, some servers may have blocked other servers (perhaps if they are a hateful group), meaning you cannot communicate with anyone from the blocked server.

Mastodon language

Mastodon users generally refer to individual communities as “instances” or servers. These Mastodon servers can be operated by individuals, groups, or organizations, each of which has its own set of rules regarding how users can register, as well as their own moderation policies. Some servers allow anyone to join, while others are invite-only or require admin approval. For example, the Professional Scientists server requires applicants to include a link to their research to prove that they are indeed professionals.

Choosing which server you want to register your account on may seem cumbersome, but it is possible to transfer your account later, so don’t worry. Additionally, you can follow people regardless of which server they use.

You may also hear Mastodon described as part of the “Fediverse,” or an interconnected network of different social media services. Did you know that having a Twitter account does not mean you can use that account on Instagram? Through Fediverse, your individual Mastodon account also gives you access to other decentralized social networks, if that interests you.

You may occasionally see the Mastodon equivalent of tweets referred to as “toots”, but this fades into invalidity (since it’s kind of silly!). Many people just call them “shares” these days, but “toot” is often referred to in older third-party clients.

Mastodon supports a number of Twitter conventions such as replies, retweets, favorites, bookmarks, and hashtags. For a while, Mastodon made a deliberate choice not to create a tweet-like feature, because it could encourage annoying criticism, but the platform relented and rolled out the feature in 2025.

Additionally, Mastodon lists work a little differently than Twitter in that you can’t add people to the list unless you already follow them. Direct messages on Mastodon are just @username posts, not private messages that go to your DM inbox – Just remember to change your visibility settings if you want this message to stay between you.

What does it mean that Mastodon is open source?

Anyone can download Mastodon, modify it and install it on their server – plus the platform developers do not own the copyright.

This does not mean that you can get Mastodon code without acknowledging the source. Former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, was initially launched using the Mastodon token and passed off as if it were native software. The mastodon didn’t take kindly to that.

How do you create a Mastodon account?

When you arrive at the Mastodon website, you can click on a button called “Create Account,” which directs you to a list of pages to choose from. You can filter these by different factors, such as region, language, topic, subscription speed, and more. There, find a server that interests you and join it – if it’s a server that requires your approval, you may need to wait a bit. From there, you can start finding people to follow, regardless of whether they are registered via the same server as you.

In an effort to reduce confusion when new users choose the server, Mastodon has made changes amid the “Twitter Departure” so that it will be easier to create an account. Now, when you sign up, it will give you an easy option to create an account on Mastodon.social instead of choosing a server.

How do you decide which Mastodon server you want to join?

The Mastodon website has useful resources – but it can still be a bit difficult to find a home base that matches your interests. Ask friends who are already on Mastodon if they have suggestions! Or just join somewhere random, because you can always change your server affiliation later once you get into things.

Can you talk to people on other Mastodon servers besides yours?

Yes, you can follow people outside your local server and reply to their posts. However, when you want to follow someone on a different server, you have to enter their username into the search box on your server to find them first, and then follow them. You can’t go to their profile and click the follow button like you do on Twitter.

What is the difference between master, local and union schedules?

Your home page’s timeline shows you posts from people you follow, similar to Twitter. The local timeline shows posts from all users on your server, while the federated timeline shows you all public posts from users that people on your server follow. (Hint: You can turn on “Slow Mode” in Preferences -> Appearance to hide timeline updates with one click if things are coming at you too quickly!)

What is Mastodon’s moderation policy?

Individual server administrators set their own moderation policies, so you should read the policy on the server you choose to make sure it matches your values.

What are the disadvantages of Mastodon compared to Twitter/X?

Mastodon’s user base is a small fraction of the size of Twitter’s user base. It’s also much less intuitive to navigate, because it’s not designed for a large, global audience like Twitter. That could change over time as more developers join the project in the wake of the Twitter acquisition.

What are the benefits of Mastodon compared to Twitter/X?

Well, for one thing, Mastodon isn’t owned by Elon Musk… However, in the near term it will be difficult for Mastodon to replicate the same “water cooler world” that Twitter has been defined by. Some users may prefer Mastodon over X, as it is more customizable in nature. Unlike X, individual communities have different content guidelines, which provide a variety of different user experiences. Although the user base on Mastodon is smaller, this can lead to more personal and direct conversations, at times, compared to tweeting into the void, so to speak.

Is Mastodon safer than Twitter?

Mastodon is what you make of it. Due to its decentralized nature, if you’re looking for a more controlled online experience, you can join a server with stricter guardrails against harassment. Some Mastodon features are also designed with harassment mitigation in mind. For example, you can search only by hashtag, not by words that appear in the horn. So, if you want your post to be discoverable, you can tag it — if you prefer to limit the audience, no one will be able to find your tweets about the Red Sox by simply searching for “Red Sox” if you don’t tag them.

However, a text-based search can turn up posts you’ve written, favorited, promoted, or been mentioned in, which can be helpful.

Can I post photos and videos?

As mentioned above, Mastodon supports many of Twitter’s conventions, but its media support is more limited. Where Twitter supports a variety of other media and data attached to Tweets, including audio-only social “spaces,” as well as images, video, GIFs, polls, precise location, and experimental “status” tags, Mastodon simply supports images, video, audio, and polls.

You can add up to four photos to a post up to eight MB in size. Video and audio can be of any length, but with a maximum file size of 40MB.

Can I post privately to friends?

Mastodon offers the ability to adjust the privacy of your post at the time of writing. Posts can be set to public to be visible to everyone; Not listed to make it public but opted out of discovery features; Visible only to your followers; Or visible only to the users you mentioned.

Can I check out Mastodon?

No, there is no global verification system like Twitter. Some servers may check their user registrations and you can self-verify, in a way, by adding links to your Mastodon profile that have a specific attribute (rel=”me”) to prove who you say you are.

Some servers enjoy the idea of ​​informal verification. For example, the mstdn.social server allows you to add blue and white checkmarks and other emojis to your display name if you wish, making you appear verified, even though these mean nothing. (A bit like Twitter’s new verification system! But for free!)

Is the mastodon here to stay?

As of summer 2025, Mastodon has less than 1 million monthly active users, and around 10 million registered users – meaning Mastodon is much smaller than X which had an estimated 132 million daily active users. However, not all social networks are created equal, and you may find that you’d rather show off your TTRPGs in a dedicated server, rather than tweeting in a world of madness. Or you might find this decentralized system overwhelming, and just have to ditch Muskening on X, or switch to Bluesky, or Threads, or something else entirely. Choose your own adventure!

I’m not sure I want to leave X. Can I exchange deployment from X to Mastodon?

Yes, this is possible via third party tools. This requires you to license your account with Twitter and Mastodon and set up parameters. We’ve had success with Moa Party, which lets you identify co-posted Tweets or Retweets. But there are other tools available, including Mastodon Twitter Crossposter, which is also available here on GitHub.

Can I find my Twitter friends on Mastodon?

Yes, this is also possible using third party tools. We’ve seen many Mastodon users try out tools like Fedifinder, Twitodon, and Debirdify, for example.

Does Mastodon work with Bluesky and Threads?

It’s a no-no for Bluesky — not unless Bluesky chooses to adopt the ActivityPub protocol that Mastodon uses. But Bluesky doesn’t plan to integrate with ActivityPub, After she decided to build her own Networking protocol. There is some skepticism among developers and the open source community as to whether or not Bluesky’s decision to go its own way is really about the merits of its protocol or if it is more about ultimately producing a manageable specification.

However, Threads supports ActivityPub. Users in Threads can choose to share their posts with other Activity Pub servers, including Mastodon.