European social media platforms
Connect and share without feeding the algorithm machines of Silicon Valley.
Social apps let you post, follow people, and join communities. The big US platforms decide what you see and sell your attention to advertisers. European and open options work differently. Mastodon, Pixelfed, and Lemmy are part of the fediverse, a network of small servers that connect to each other. No single company owns it, and no algorithm decides your feed. BeReal, from France, keeps things simple with one photo a day.
Carefully selected European alternatives, some links may earn us a small commission.
German non-profit social network founded by Eugen Rochko in 2016. Federated and open-source, with no ads, no algorithms, and no single point of control. Used by 47M+ accounts across 80,000+ independent servers. Hosts the European Commission's official server.
Open-source federated photo sharing platform built on ActivityPub. Choose a European instance or self-host for full data sovereignty. No ads, no algorithms, no data mining. Major EU-hosted instances include pixelfed.social and pixelfed.de. Available on iOS and Android.
French open-source federated event platform originally created by Framasoft and now maintained by French non-profit Kaihuri. Organise events and groups without ads, tracking, or data exploitation. Federated via ActivityPub: host your own instance or join an existing one.
Replaces: Facebook , Meetup , Eventbrite
Open-source, federated alternative to Reddit built on ActivityPub. No ads, no tracking, no corporate owner. Communities are hosted across thousands of independent instances that talk to each other and to the wider Fediverse.
Replaces: Reddit
French social app that sends a daily random notification prompting users to share an unfiltered two-minute photo. Founded in Paris in 2020, acquired by French mobile publisher Voodoo in 2024 for €500M. 40M+ active users.
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