Lemmy
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.
Quick facts
Communities live across thousands of independent instances that still talk to each other, so no single company can shut the whole network down or sell your data.
Content and moderation quality vary a lot from instance to instance, and finding an active community for a niche topic takes more digging than opening one Reddit app.
Why does it score 85?
The project has mixed European/US developer roots and no single incorporated HQ, so it scores as European but outside the EU/EFTA tier rather than a full member state.
Run as a non-profit, donation- and grant-funded project with no company or VC investors at all.
Lemmy's flagship instance runs on infrastructure in Germany, though the network is fully decentralised across thousands of independently run instances.
Fully open source (AGPL) and GDPR-compliant – anyone can audit the code or run their own instance.
See how they compare
LemmyWhat does it replace?
Reddit More European Social media & communities alternatives
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.
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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.