Comparison

DEF CON Forums vs Mastodon

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

Head to head
About

DEF CON Forums

Connect with the hacker and infosec communities. Discuss topics, plan for DEF CON conferences, and access the official forums directly through a streamlined interface. Supports multiple languages and prioritizes user privacy.

Highlights
  • Access DEF CON forums
  • Connect with hacker community
  • Infosec discussions
  • Conference planning
  • Multi-language support
  • Privacy-focused
Features
Read full description

DEF CON Forums are a place to talk with others in the hacker and infosec communities as well as help plan or play at the next DEF CON conference. This app gets you to https://forum.defcon.org/ without the web interface. Multi-language interface is now supported Privacy and Security Notes: - No AdMob - No Google Analytics - The app wants permissions for camera, etc, but seems to work find without them.

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

DEF CON Forums3 screens
Mastodon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Mastodon at 48% against DEF CON Forums's 0%. Mastodon also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.3) and ratings volume (13K vs 6). DEF CON Forums's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 vs 18.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mastodon has 13K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of DEF CON Forums's written reviews are positive against 48% of Mastodon's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DEF CON Forums ships an update every 3 months, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 16, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
DEF CON Forums versus Mastodon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDEF CON ForumsMastodon
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.3 (6 ratings)4.5 (13K ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews48.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings613K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS9.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB110 MB
Age rating12+17+
DeveloperDEF CON, Inc.Mastodon GmbH

Customer experience

DEF CON Forums

All ratings6 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral16.7%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative50.0%

Mastodon

All ratings13,481 ratings
Positive88.8%
Neutral5.9%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews888 reviews
Positive48.3%
Neutral18.8%
Negative32.9%

Bugs and requests

DEF CON Forums

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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

DEF CON Forums

No in-app purchases

None

Mastodon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is DEF CON Forums free?
DEF CON Forums 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, DEF CON Forums or Mastodon?
Mastodon is rated higher. DEF CON Forums averages 3.3 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Mastodon averages 4.5 from 13K ratings.
Do DEF CON Forums or Mastodon have ads?
Neither DEF CON Forums nor Mastodon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DEF CON Forums or Mastodon?
DEF CON Forums ships an update every 3 months, and Mastodon monthly. Most recently, DEF CON Forums was updated on September 16, 2026 and Mastodon on October 3, 2026.

Other comparisons