Comparison

Locals.com vs Mastodon

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

Head to head
About

Locals.com

Connect directly with creators and communities you admire. This platform prioritizes user control and creator ownership, offering features like live streaming, community feeds, and content libraries. Support creators independently without algorithmic interference.

Highlights
  • Direct creator support
  • Algorithm-free content feeds
  • Creator data ownership
  • Live streaming with chat
  • Community feeds and posts
  • Content libraries (video/audio)
Read full description

Directly support the creators you love. Control your content and avoid the algorithms. Built from the ground up to champion the needs of creators, Locals does not sell your data and creators have unprecedented ownership over theirs. With features like live-streaming with chat, community feeds and posts, and content libraries for video and audio, the Locals app is an all-in-one solution to interact with the content you love, while directly supporting the independence of the communities and creators you care about. Power to the people. Not the platform. On Locals. https://locals.com/terms

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

Locals.com4 screens
Mastodon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mastodon at none against Locals.com's 12. Locals.com's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.5) and chart position (#119 vs unranked). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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. Locals.com sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Mastodon asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Locals.com holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 41K and 13K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 53% of Locals.com's written reviews are positive against 48% of Mastodon's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Locals.com ships an update every 4 weeks, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Locals.com versus Mastodon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLocals.comMastodon
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (41K ratings) — better4.5 (13K ratings)
Positive reviews52.8% of reviews — better48.3% of reviews
Number of ratings41K — better13K
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#119 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size53 MB110 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperLocals Technology IncMastodon GmbH

Customer experience

Locals.com

All ratings41,202 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral3.2%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews358 reviews
Positive52.8%
Neutral14.8%
Negative32.4%

Mastodon

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

User reviews

Locals.com

From 41K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Real news and uncensored content
  • 🙌 Freedom of speech and expression
  • 🔒 Secure and censorship-free platform
  • 💡 Innovative community-driven model
  • 🚀 Steadily improving with updates

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy app with technical issues
  • 🤔 Difficult to navigate and find content
  • 💰 Expensive subscription fees
  • 🔍 Limited search and discovery features
  • 🔇 Inconsistent audio/video playback

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

Locals.com

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Frequent crashes and freezes
  • Disappearing notifications
  • Orientation issues on iPad
  • Inconsistent audio/video sync
  • Unreliable live stream playback

Requested features

5 requests
  • Download option for offline viewing
  • Better nested comments and community management
  • Improved integration with Rumble platform
  • Customizable notification settings
  • Picture-in-picture mode for video playback

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

12 purchases

Locals.com

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly: 50 coins + 20 bonus$7.991 Month
One-time11
  • 20 Coins$1.99
  • 50 Coins$4.99
  • 50$7.99
Show 8 more
  • 100 Coins$9.99
  • 100$14.99
  • 150 Coins$14.99
  • 200$19.99
  • 210 Coins$20.99
  • 300 Coins$29.99
  • 360 Coins$35.99
  • 500 Coins$49.99
None

Mastodon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Locals.com free?
Locals.com is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Mastodon free?
Mastodon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Locals.com or Mastodon?
Locals.com is rated higher. Locals.com averages 4.7 out of 5 from 41K ratings, while Mastodon averages 4.5 from 13K ratings.
Do Locals.com or Mastodon have ads?
Neither Locals.com nor Mastodon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Locals.com or Mastodon?
Locals.com ships an update every 4 weeks, and Mastodon monthly. Most recently, Locals.com was updated on October 1, 2026 and Mastodon on September 30, 2026.

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