Periwinkle is making self-hosted social media on Bluesky’s AT protocol even easier

Berlin-based startup Periwinkle offers a new way for those who want to leave centralized social media run by big tech companies. Instead of joining a decentralized, open social media app like Mastodon or Bluesky, Periwinkle allows anyone to set up a social media account on their own domain, under their own control.

Periwinkle is built on the AT protocol, the same open source technology that powers Bluesky Alternative

This means you can have an account on your own domain on sites like Bluesky, or a hosted social site for your organization or community. Periwinkle offers domains for purchase, and allows you to store your data, including posts, follows and your user profile, on your own PDS (Personal Data Server), which is part of the AT infrastructure.

Periwinkle makes the transition easier for non-technical users or others who don’t want to have to set up and maintain their own server. Once in Periwinkle, users’ servers are updated, backed up and monitored by the company, leaving the user free to focus on posting on social media.

“We will be the first fully managed PDS on the market; no one else is doing it right now,” says Charles Blumenthal, founder of Periwinkle. (To be clear, there are other organizations offering alternatives to Bluesky’s PDS, such as Blacksky, but their tools focus on those building self-managing online communities.)

This idea is similar to how people who want to create their own blog can choose between a user-friendly hosted blog on WordPress.com, a DIY installation using open source software from WordPress.org, or something in between – such as a WordPress installation managed by an external hosting provider. Periwinkle offers the same thing, but for decentralized social media.

Blumenthal, a former software engineer at McKinsey, says he came up with the idea after realizing that many people didn’t really understand the AT protocol and its benefits.

“It’s really not a great idea for two billionaires to control the way billions of people communicate,” he told TechCrunch. “If you could leave Twitter to some competitor and all your followers and all your content and everything — it’s there with you, you just log in — would you do it right?”

The growth of Bluesky’s AT Protocol-powered app, which now has more than 43 million registered users, shows there is some demand for this type of offering, Blumenthal said, adding that he believes this market is likely to expand over time to include people who want to own their personal data, rather than trusting it to another company.

Periwinkle’s premium plans start at $4 per month for the Basic plan with support for 5 handles and 5GB of storage, with real-time backups and a choice between EU or US hosting. The 25GB Pro and 50GB Team plans, priced at $14 per month and $30 per month, respectively, offer support for more handles, longer backup data retention, and SLAs. Custom enterprise plans are also available.

A free plan is also available for those who want to try the service with 500MB of storage space.

These plans can be useful for those who want more fine-grained control over their social media accounts, such as government officials, political candidates, or accounts run by companies. Over time, the company aims to add more tools such as automatic post deletions, archiving tools, and more.

Blumenthal is currently a solo founder, and the company is self-funding for now, he said, though he has been speaking with investors in Europe. Over time, he would like to hire another engineer and someone else to handle communications and marketing.