Hive Social vs Mastodon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hive Social
Connect with friends and discover new content on a social media platform. Express yourself with customizable features like a music section and color themes. Engage with communities, creators, and content through a chronological feed and interactive tools.
- Customizable Music Section
- Full app color themes
- Discover trending content and communities
- Asks feature for creator interaction
- Repost, share, and reply to posts
- Gif feature
- Chronological home feed
Read full descriptionHide full description
Share content and connect to people you love on Hive. - Express yourself with our customizable Music Section - Full app color themes and zodiac signs - Explore trending and new content on our Discover page with tons of communities - New Asks feature where you can get to know creators better - Repost, share, and reply to posts or upload Gifs with our Gif feature - Easily grow your account with an algorithm that boosts your organic reach We make it easy for you to discover content you enjoy, whether it's photos, videos, or statuses. Our music feature allows you to express yourself, our Asks feature makes it even more fun to interact with other users, and with our chronological home feed, you'll never miss a post from your family and friends either. Explore your favorite content on Hive. Have feedback for us? Please e-mail support@hivesocial.app where our support team will assist you as soon as possible.
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.
- 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
Read full descriptionHide 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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Mastodon at 4.5 against Hive Social's 3.3. Mastodon also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and review sentiment (48% vs 31%). Hive Social's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.6). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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
Both are free to download. Hive Social sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Mastodon asks for nothing beyond the download.
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 2.1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of Hive Social's written reviews are positive against 48% of Mastodon's.
Hive Social ships an update every 3 weeks, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hive Social | Mastodon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (2.1K ratings) | 4.5 (13K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.7% of reviews | 48.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2.1K | 13K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 105 MB | 111 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Hive Social, Inc. | Mastodon GmbH |
Customer experience
Hive Social
Mastodon
User reviews
Hive Social
From 2.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great alternative to Twitter
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
- 💡 Unique features like music profiles
- 🌟 Promising platform with potential
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches
- ⏱️ Slow loading times and performance issues
- 🔒 Lack of security and privacy features
- 📢 Moderation issues with inappropriate content
Mastodon
From 13K App Store ratingsWhat 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
Hive Social
Reported bugs
4 issues- Unable to edit profile information
- Inconsistent follower/following counts
- Verification email not being sent
- Crashes and freezes when trying to post
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to deactivate/delete account
- Option to connect Spotify instead of just Apple Music
- Improved search and discovery functionality
- Addition of stories or short-form video sharing
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
Hive Social
- 2nd Profile Playlist Slot$0.99
- 4th Profile Playlist Slot$1.99
- 3rd Profile Playlist Slot$1.99
Mastodon
No in-app purchases








