Mastodon vs Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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
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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.
Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots
Experience a beautifully designed and highly performant client for the Mastodon social network. Offers extensive customization, multi-account support, and advanced features like content warnings, polls, and powerful filtering.
- Beautiful visual and sound design
- Blazing fast performance
- Multiple account support
- Content warnings and polls
- GIF search and posting
- Customizable push notifications
- Powerful mute and timeline filters
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Ivory is a brand new app that brings over a dozen years of experience building the award-winning Tweetbot for Twitter, over to the Mastodon network. We obsess over every detail and put good design and experience first. Download and experience it for yourself. If you liked Tweetbot, you’ll love Ivory! We are very excited about the future of Ivory and have so many great plans for it. Here’s what you can expect in Ivory now: ⁃ Beautiful visual and sound design ⁃ Blazing fast performance and super smooth scrolling ⁃ Many theme and app icon options ⁃ Support for multiple accounts ⁃ Create and view content warnings ⁃ Create and participate in polls ⁃ Easily search for and post gifs ⁃ Customizable push notifications and viewable notifications tab ⁃ View post statistics for the day and graph for the week in the stats tab ⁃ Powerful mute filters with regex support ⁃ Ability to follow hashtags and create hashtag lists ⁃ Bookmark posts to refer back to privately ⁃ View local and federated timelines as well as trending posts ⁃ Powerful timeline filters to quickly show/hide posts of different criteria ⁃ Never lose your place in the timeline across Ivory on multiple devices including iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. -- Subscription Details -- • Monthly and annual subscriptions are available • Payment will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase • Your subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is disabled at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period • Automatic renewals will be charged at the same price you were originally charged for the subscription • Subscriptions can be managed or cancelled by going to Account Settings on the App Store after purchase Terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://tapbots.net/ivory/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mastodon at none against Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots's 6. Mastodon also leads on ratings volume (13K vs 3.9K). Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots's advantage is review sentiment (75% vs 48%) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). 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. Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Mastodon asks for nothing beyond the download.
Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 13K and 3.9K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 48% of Mastodon's written reviews are positive against 75% of Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots's.
Mastodon ships an update monthly, Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Mastodon | Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (13K ratings) | 4.8 (3.9K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 48.3% of reviews | 75.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 13K — better | 3.9K |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 16.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 110 MB | 152 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Mastodon GmbH | Tapbots |
Customer experience
Mastodon
Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots
User reviews
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
Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots
From 3.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth and fast performance
- 👍 Familiar and intuitive interface
- 🔒 Robust security and privacy features
- 💡 Excellent integration with Mastodon
- 🎨 Beautiful and customizable design
Room to improve
- 🔒 Paid subscription required for basic functionality
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
- 💰 Relatively high subscription cost compared to free alternatives
- 🔍 Limited search and discovery features
Bugs and 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
Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots
Reported bugs
2 issues- Inconsistent behavior when scrolling to top of timeline
- Issues with muting and filtering functionality
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to edit and delete posts
- Support for more Mastodon features like hashtag tracking
- Improved notification and moderation tools
- Misskey and other Fediverse platform support
In-app purchases
Mastodon
No in-app purchases
Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots
- Ivory iOS + iPadOS Monthly Sub7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Ivory for macOS Monthly Sub7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Ivory iOS + iPadOS Yearly Sub7 Days trial$14.991 Year
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Ivory for macOS Yearly Sub7 Days trial$14.991 Year
- iOS, iPadOS + macOS Yearly Sub7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- macOS, iOS + iPadOS Yearly Sub7 Days trial$24.991 Year
Questions
Is Mastodon free?
Is Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots free?
Which has better reviews, Mastodon or Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots?
Do Mastodon or Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots have ads?
Which is updated more often, Mastodon or Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots?
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