this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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74
What Fediverse instances would you recommend to others? (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) by Cantaloupe877@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
33 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The Fediverse is huge and overwhelming to a newcomer, with many different types and each with servers to pick from. Which ones would you suggest checking out or avoiding?

all 34 comments
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[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Just FYI everyone, this spike is sort of a glitch and its quite obvious just from looking at how steep the curve is. It all comes from nodebb which is a forum software and i guess they switched on federation on 11.01.2026 which gave us this magical bump.

They are real users probably, but what i mean is that this wasnt a rush of new users, but just old (mostly inactive) users that were never considered part of the fediverse until now.

https://nodebb.fediverse.observer/dailystats

[–] guynamedzero@piefed.zeromedia.vip 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

My own! I feel like I run it pretty well, I certainly trust myself with my data than others. But otherwise, id probably recommend lemmy.zip or piefed.social

[–] Cantaloupe877@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

I’m leaning towards running my own too.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 1 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

it seems like lemmy.today is decent, especially since there are no blocked instances. i moved from lemmy.sdf.org recently since their servers were down too often.

[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

especially since there are no blocked instances

That's not a good sign tbh...

[–] remon@ani.social -2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It kind of is when you are a person that values their own agency and don't want your content to be curated by someone else.

[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 36 minutes ago

It's not about you. It's about the type of content that will appear on the server, even if you personally block it.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 1 points 55 minutes ago

There was a server hiccup for about a day or so once in the last 2 years, but I've had no other issues.

I'm torn between wanting to tell people, and trying to keep it to myself to hold off the enshitification for as long as possible.

[–] redrumBot@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 hours ago

I would recommend use https://join-lemmy.org/ it suggest a generic instance and also lets search specific instances.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 29 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

Assuming we're talking about instances we'd recommend to new Fediverse users, I'd recommend against lemmy.world. Not because there's anything wrong with the instance, but simply because it's the largest, by a fairly large margin. A central principal of the fediverse is decentralization, and to that end, it's healthier to spread the users across many instances than to have folks concentrated too heavily on any one.

[–] everett@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

A central principal of the fediverse is decentralization, and to that end, it's healthier to spread the users across many instances than to have folks concentrated too heavily on any one.

It's certainly healthier for the whole to have users spread across instances, but that's a matter of emergence. What's your pitch to convince an individual to choose a smaller instance, when it's far more likely that their instance will cease to exist, taking their identity, history and hosted communities with it?

[–] Cantaloupe877@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

It’s trust and uptime data so it seems. Pick the server you think is most trustworthy and will stand the longest.

[–] Cantaloupe877@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

I figured joining the biggest one would be the most exciting and active. I believe federation happens when a user on one instance follows another, so joining a smaller one might mean you miss some content. I could be wrong though.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

There are tools nowadays that share communities around to smaller instances through bot accounts that auto subscribe.

https://lemmy-federate.com/

It also makes it easier when you create a community, now it will automatically show up on most instances.

[–] testaccount372920@piefed.zip 8 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

You're only missing content if your instance defederates from another and vice versa or if you block instances yourself.

It might be a bit easier to find new communities at first by scrolling through the local feed on a bigger community, but you can also do this without making an account there.

I think stability and speed of an instance are better selection criteria since they effect your experience much more. Piefed instances tend to offer a smooth and fast experience. E.g. piefed.social, piefed.zip, and the others mentioned in one of the other comments.

[–] everett@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

You're only missing content if your instance defederates from another and vice versa or if you block instances yourself.

You're missing content from communities that no one on your instance follows yet.

[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

Yep, but piefed and lemmy both have tools to propogate communities to small instances so that they can be discovered and followed. So you won't see content that no one on the instance is interested in, but if someone is, they'll be able to find the community for it, even if they're on a small instance.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

tankies need to be on thier own instances so they can circlejerk each other. politics is problematic in .world, they try to hid subtley calling people antisemtitic

[–] q1p_@lemmy.zip 9 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I'm on Lemmy.zip and someone said that I would fit into that community. Would I recommend it? Yes.

[–] ragingHungryPanda@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com 6 points 5 hours ago

I'd like to plug the fediverse servers that I'm hosting for the traveller / digital nomad niche over at keyboard vagabond

https://piefed.keyboardvagabond.com/

https://mastodon.keyboardvagabond.com/

https://pixelfed.keyboardvagabond.com/

https://blog.keyboardvagabond.com/

[–] recursive_recursion@piefed.ca 16 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

Recommend:

Avoid:

  • Lemmy.ml (Tankie fascist koolaid. Unless you enjoy being gaslit and manipulated similar to Trump and his fascist thugs, this should be avoided like the bubonic plague)
  • Lemmy.world (sorry guys but seriously please reconsider accepting literally everyone for users; it's crazy how much spam and nonsense is coming from your instance)
[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

hexbear, lemmygrad as well. hexbear make themselves sound"cute" to hopefully trick people into engaging in thier instance, when in fact they are tankies.

[–] CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Joining a default instance is fine for beginners, but you can’t stay for long. Do a quick peek around, find an instance that looks cool, and head out.

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 8 points 6 hours ago

Personally I’d really like to see more servers physically located in privacy and free-speech friendly places like Switzerland and Iceland (for example). I’m not sure why you’d want to have your social media hosted anywhere else.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I recommend MULTIVERSE to any new otherkin/xenogender/plural fediverse users, or anyone who has antirealist sympathies.

[–] Waveform@multiverse.soulism.net 2 points 1 hour ago

Oh yeah, this is perfect for me!

[–] susi7802@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Go for a smaller European one, the one I’m on is in Finland. Me, I like Finland, the fins are sexy. And why only use one instance, you can have a user on several, that way ~~you can downvote your own posts and discuss with a person that is as intelligent as yourself (mainly because it actually is you!) I mean:~~ you can try out the audience and communities, which are different on all servers.