Comparison

Shut Up vs Mastodon

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Shut Up

This app helps you avoid unwanted online discussions by automatically hiding comment sections while browsing the web in Safari. You can customize which websites should always display comments.

Highlights
  • Hides comment sections in Safari
  • Customizable website exceptions
  • Simple and free to use
  • Works on websites only
Features
Read full description

Shut Up spares you the opinions of troglodytes by hiding comment sections when browsing the web in Safari. You can also set your favorite websites to show comments by default. That's it. Simple and free. Enjoy! NOTE: Shut Up can only hide comments on websites, not inside apps. Uses shutup.css by Steven Frank, with permission. https://github.com/panicsteve/shutup-css

About

Mastodon

Connect with others on a decentralized social network. Share posts, images, and videos in chronological order without algorithms or ads. Discover new content and participate in conversations across the fediverse.

Highlights
  • Chronological feed
  • No algorithms or ads
  • Discover new users and topics
  • Post with images, videos, and polls
  • Create custom lists
  • Filter content
  • Cross-platform communication
Features
Read full description

Mastodon is the best way to keep up with what’s happening. Follow anyone across the fediverse and see it all in chronological order. No algorithms, ads, or clickbait in sight. This is the official iOS app for Mastodon. In our app, you can: EXPLORE ■ Discover new writers, journalists, artists, photographers, scientists and more ■ See what’s happening in the world READ ■ Keep up with people you care about in a chronological feed with no interruptions ■ Follow hashtags to keep up with specific topics in real time CREATE ■ Post to your followers or the whole world, with polls, high quality images and videos ■ Participate in interesting conversations with other people CURATE ■ Create lists of people to never miss a post ■ Filter words or phrases to control what you do and don’t want to see AND MORE! ■ Login and switch between multiple accounts ■ No spoilers! You can put your posts behind content warnings A POWERFUL PUBLISHING PLATFORM You no longer have to try and appease an opaque algorithm that decides if your friends are going to see what you posted. If they follow you, they’ll see it. If you publish it to the open web, it’s accessible on the open web. You can safely share links to Mastodon in the knowledge that anyone will be able to read them without logging in. Between threads, polls, high quality images, videos, audio, and content warnings, Mastodon offers plenty of ways to express yourself in a way that suits you. A POWERFUL READING PLATFORM We don’t need to show you ads, so we don’t need to keep you in our app. Mastodon has the richest selection of 3rd party apps and integrations so you can choose the experience that fits you best. Thanks to the chronological home feed, it’s easy to tell when you’ve caught up on all updates and can move on to something else. No need to worry that a misclick will ruin your recommendations forever. We don’t guess what you want to see, we let you control it. PROTOCOLS, NOT PLATFORMS Mastodon is not like a traditional social media platform, but is built on a decentralized protocol. You can sign up on our official server, or choose a 3rd party to host your data and moderate your experience. Thanks to the common protocol, no matter what you choose, you can communicate seamlessly with people on other Mastodon servers. But there’s more: With just one account, you can communicate with people from other fediverse platforms. Not happy with your choice? You can always switch to a different Mastodon server while taking your followers with you. For advanced users, you can even host your data on your own infrastructure, since Mastodon is open-source. NON-PROFIT IN NATURE Mastodon is a registered non-profit in the US and Germany. We are not motivated by extracting monetary value from the platform, but by what’s best for the platform. AS FEATURED IN: TIME, Forbes, Wired, The Guardian, CNN, The Verge, TechCrunch, Financial Times, Gizmodo, PCMAG.com, and more.

Screenshots

Shut Up4 screens
Mastodon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Mastodon at 13K against Shut Up's 49. Mastodon also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 6 months) and rating (4.5 vs 4.2). Shut Up's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.6). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Mastodon holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mastodon has 13K ratings behind it against 49, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 56% of Shut Up's written reviews are positive against 48% of Mastodon's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shut Up ships an update every 6 months, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Shut Up versus Mastodon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShut UpMastodon
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (49 ratings)4.5 (13K ratings) — better
Positive reviews56.1% of reviews — better48.3% of reviews
Number of ratings4913K — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB110 MB
Age rating9+17+
DeveloperRichard RomeroMastodon GmbH

Customer experience

Shut Up

All ratings46 ratings
Positive78.3%
Neutral10.9%
Negative10.9%
Written reviews57 reviews
Positive56.1%
Neutral15.8%
Negative28.1%

Mastodon

All ratings13,481 ratings
Positive88.8%
Neutral5.9%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews889 reviews
Positive48.3%
Neutral18.8%
Negative33.0%

User reviews

Shut Up

From 49 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Blocks comments effectively
  • 🕊️ Provides peace and sanity
  • 🚀 Improves browsing experience
  • 💡 Saves time by reducing distractions
  • ✅ Works well with ad-blockers

Room to improve

  • ❌ Does not work on YouTube comments
  • ❌ Does not work on mobile app versions
  • ❌ Stopped working on newer iOS/macOS versions
  • ❌ Inconsistent performance across websites
  • ❌ Fails to block Disqus comments

Mastodon

From 13K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Friendly and welcoming community
  • 🚀 Decentralized and free from corporate control
  • 🔒 No data collection or ads
  • 🤖 Good alternative to Twitter
  • 💡 Ability to self-host servers

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • 🤔 Confusing onboarding and server selection
  • 📱 Limited functionality compared to web version
  • 🔍 Difficulty finding and following people
  • 🕰️ Slow or delayed notifications

Bugs and requests

Shut Up

Reported bugs

24 issues
  • Does not work for YouTube comments
  • Does not work for mobile app versions
  • Stopped working on iOS 26 and later
  • Does not shut up Disqus
  • Does not block anything
Show 19 more
  • No longer works on iOS Safari
  • Misses some websites
  • Does not work on YouTube in Safari
  • Does not block comments on Instagram on iOS Safari
  • Does not work on Pinterest.co.uk
  • Does not work on mobile sites unless desktop version is requested
  • No good for social apps like Instagram
  • Reinstalling required after updates
  • App crashes at opening
  • Whitelist resets every time it's opened
  • Does not work in Ventura
  • Not blocking YouTube comments
  • Does not work on the YouTube app
  • Comments still show up after removing from exception list
  • Cannot turn on in app settings for Safari
  • Had to install twice before it worked
  • Stopped working on Safari 15.1 (Monterey)
  • Comments disappeared, but ALL comments disappear (not desired)
  • App crashes at opening

Requested features

8 requests
  • Block comments in mobile app versions
  • Improve blocking for YouTube comments
  • Improve blocking for Disqus comments
  • Improve blocking for Pinterest comments
  • Work on individual apps (not just Safari)
Show 3 more
  • Ensure compatibility with newer iOS/macOS versions
  • Fix whitelist reset bug
  • Fix app crashing bug

Mastodon

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Can't log in or create account
  • Keyboard freezes during editing
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching accounts
  • Notifications not working as expected

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add local and federated timelines
  • Improve search and discovery features
  • Implement edit and delete post functionality
  • Add support for animated GIFs
  • Provide better accessibility options

In-app purchases

None

Shut Up

No in-app purchases

None

Mastodon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shut Up free?
Shut Up is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Mastodon free?
Mastodon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shut Up or Mastodon?
Mastodon is rated higher. Shut Up averages 4.2 out of 5 from 49 ratings, while Mastodon averages 4.5 from 13K ratings.
Do Shut Up or Mastodon have ads?
Neither Shut Up nor Mastodon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shut Up or Mastodon?
Shut Up ships an update every 6 months, and Mastodon monthly. Most recently, Shut Up was updated on October 23, 2026 and Mastodon on October 24, 2026.

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