Pixelfed
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026
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Selfhosted
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Since nobody mentioned it yet, Pixelfed.
Going outside
Just in case no one has said it, Pixelfed
Pixelfed.
Some how this slipped through the cracks among all the other suggestions, but PixelFed is sort of the only fedi photo blog alternative.
Technically there's also Misskey/Sharkey, but that's more of a Pinterest alternative, as well as Friendica for a Facebook alternative and Mastodon for a Twitter alternative.
And GoToSocial is the nearest Fediverse alternative to the 'old web,' as it were, but you need to host that yourself.
I’d personally say most of those are “microblog” styled interfaces, but I can’t actually provide a clear cut definitional difference between “photo blog” and “micro blog” other than a vibes based thing about including photos in EVERY post or not.
But yeah, love all the options we have. I was just talking with someone about missing Web 1.0, I’ll have to check out GoToSocial and spin it up on my hardware.
YT even has PeerTube as an alternative, and one I wish more people would use as Google inevitably locks down YT further.
Yeah! I like PeerTube. I want to start posting there, but I’m struggling to find the time to edit together videos.
Misskey/Sharkey being similar to Pinterest??? Has Pinterest changed that much in about 4 years, cause that's when I last used it (ads ad AI art chased me off)
Miss/Sharkey is more like Twitter but if it was pretty/customizable and with a pinch of overstimulation imo. The JP origins is what gives it the overstimulation (the reaction emotes, oh my god...)
I don't really think any popular Fedi platform is similar to Pinterest tbh.
I thought Misskey/Sharkey was specifically trying to be a Pinterest alternative, while Pixelfed is trying to be an IG alternative and Mastodon is trying to be a Twitter alternative.
Misskey/Sharkey are Mastodon but with added or tweaked functionality, Misskey is directly forked from Mastodon iirc
Pixelfed
Pixelfed.
I personally like Pixelfed
Just downloaded pixelfed. Youse guys are either corrupting me or leading me to my inevitable evolution
One of us, one of us, one of us.....
Already uploaded me first pic (a shot of my eldest cat. I'm a stereotype waiting to happen)
Yay more people to join Pixelfed!
The limitation of smaller platforms like Pixelfed is that basically no one uses them. If you are using Instagram to keep track of people in your local community you are unlikely to find anything else.
do you actually see people from your local community tho?
genuinely asking. i haven’t logged in to ig in years.
For me it's more like i see old friends that I've moved away from, but if they have a wedding or other life event, i could see it on IG, along with daily stuff from other old friends.
I haven't been on ig for years though. I could dance, if i wanted to. I could leave my friends behind!
Start by asking yourself honestly if you need an Instagram replacement or if you really just need a substitute to replace the dopamine you get from a behavior - meaning basically, you probably just want a new infinite scroll for when you feel bored, restless or awkward and need a diversion.
If that's the case, look at some of the stumbleupon clones or maybe the wiktok kind of tik tok style wrapper for wikipedia type apps. But if you truly need Instagram specifically, the good news is that pixelfed is mostly there, hard part is that you now need to convince many to come use it for it to "feel" full and fun
Can you give me an example of a FOSS WikTok?
Wikwok is one of them
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.terrakok.wikwok.androidApp/
I think there is also one just called wikitok, can look later
Very good point. Well for instagram, I only go on there to post on my account and do very little scrolling and that's it, im off my phone. I'll be there to just post on my account when I find something suitable. I've been pushing myself away from all this media unless its like trustworthy news
- Pixelfed for sharing public content
- Signal (or a similar messaging platform) for private stories / content intended for specific people
A "private" instagram account or story was never actually private, but that distinction is still helpful when recommending alternatives IMO
Then you can use something like libredirect with kittygram to view any Instagram only content in a privacy respecting way, like if you open a link
There are various technical alternatives (ActivityPub-based stuff like PixelFed/Loops/Mastodon/GotoSocial/Sharkey/Akkoma/something else on the Fediverse)
But would you take the plunge of self-discovering different content, which might as well be none of your topics of interests? Would you be acquainted of vastly different UI/UX such as the lack of recommendations, a million client frontends, and the technicality of federation? And lastly, will you find it a place with communities to socialize and content to enjoy from in the long run?
I think trying out on a public instance would be a good way to answer those questions. PixelFed most closely resembles Insta, but the other ones can do too. Then you can consider selfhosting your own
I haven't gotten deep into self hosting yet, even though i do wanna try that with Jellyfin. For the insta alternative I prefer just posting and interacting with others.
Maybe, Pixelfed.
Thanks everyone!
One thing of note, since Pixelfed is part of the Fediverse, posts made on Pixelfed instances can be seen by users of Mastodon and other platforms that use the same protocol! It's really neat!
Not the standard answer, but here's another opinion: I think Signal is a good alternative.
Depends on how you use Instagram. If you're just sharing with closed groups of friends and family then just make some groups in Signal and share pictures with each other there.
If you want to post to everyone or look at everyone else's posts then this obviously isnt going to work. But if your use case is as I describe above then just try using your private chat app.
Can someone easily merge from Google Messages to Signal? I've heard of signal and im also looking for another message alternative; more so for that and insta. Pixelfed is really catching my eye for insta.
How do you mean merge?
It's basically another messenger.
Signal is a great app to replace your messenger with. Keep in mind that it doesn't save whatever media you post there in your gallery.
Matrix is another solution, but you'd have to self host that. I have no experience with it.
Threema is a swiss app which I think was pretty privacy respecting as well? It doesn't use phone numbers either IIRC.
Like Google unfortunately uses RCS and everyone i know uses RCS because either they have apple or are using Google messages with RCS. So if I was to go to Signal for example, would my chats transfer over or would I have to start over because RCS is not used?
Signal used to do text messaging as well but they removed the feature. As they felt it was unclear when a message was fully encrypted ( signal message ) and when it wasnt ( text /RCS message ).
I don't think there's a privacy friendly chat app that also does RCS.
Vernissage.photos or pixelfed
Also want to mention that GoToSocial has an option to change the layout to a instagram like gallery: https://docs.gotosocial.org/en/v0.22.0/user_guide/settings/#select-layout
I know this is hardly an replacement for what instagram is like nowadays. But for those who just want to share their photos thats a great way thats often overlooked.
Yes, I'm using that after a short foray into Pixelfed. And together with @mczachurski@mastodon.social 's Impressia iOS app it's a really good experience.
This is just the layout for your personal profile. GtS doesn't have a full frontend, it's intended to be used with whatever your favorite Mastodon app is (Phandroid).
Loops. It’s basically Instagram videos without ads. Currently kinda weird. But there’s some people there.
Vernissage
Isn't Vernissage more of a Flickr replacement?