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Friendica in the browser

2026.05-1 · Friendica · Page updated

Open source · AGPL-3.0 Web

A decentralised social network with Facebook-style profiles, groups and long posts, connected to Mastodon and the rest of the fediverse.

Open friendi.ca

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About Friendica

Friendica is a decentralised social network that runs in the browser — you open a server, register and start posting, with no download. The current release is 2026.05-1, developed by the Friendica project. Where Mastodon feels like a short-post microblog, Friendica is closer to Facebook: longer posts, photo albums, events, groups and fine-grained control over who sees what.

Quick facts

  • Type: federated social network (web service)
  • Version: 2026.05-1
  • Licence: GNU AGPLv3, open source, code on GitHub
  • Price: free to use
  • Start here: friendi.ca/resources/find-a-server
  • Replaces: Facebook, X (Twitter), Threads, LinkedIn

How to begin

  1. Press Open to go to the official server finder.
  2. Choose a server by language and rules; check that registration is open.
  3. Create an account and fill in your profile.
  4. Search for people you know, including their Mastodon addresses, and add them as contacts.

The account lives on the server you chose. It is not a login for every Friendica server, and not an account on Mastodon either, but through federation you can follow and talk to people on those networks.

What makes it different

Friendica's strong point is connecting networks. The same account can follow Mastodon and other fediverse users, read RSS feeds, and — depending on the add-ons a server has enabled — link to some other services. Posts can be long and formatted, and you can put contacts into circles and share a post with one circle only, the way you might use friend lists elsewhere. Groups work as forums inside the network. For people moving away from Facebook, this set of features is often closer to what they are used to than the short-post format of Mastodon. The version number follows the year and month of the release rather than a feature count.

Requirements

A current browser; no installation for users. Mobile access works through the browser or through Mastodon-compatible apps, which many Friendica servers support.

Safety and privacy

Private posts are delivered only to chosen contacts, but they are still stored on servers, and admins can access them. Choose a server whose operators you trust, and remember that posts sent to people on other servers are stored there as well.

Alternatives

If you mainly want short public posts, Mastodon is simpler and has a larger community. For photo-first sharing, Pixelfed; for forums and link discussions, Lemmy or PieFed. Friendica makes sense for people who want one account that keeps in touch with all of them and who miss the long posts, albums and events of Facebook.

Pros and cons

  • Pro: Facebook-like features with no single owner and no ads.
  • Pro: talks to Mastodon and other networks from one account.
  • Con: the interface is dense and takes time to learn.
  • Con: fewer active servers than Mastodon.