LimeChat vs Mastodon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LimeChat
This app provides a comprehensive IRC chat experience on mobile devices. It offers quick navigation, message highlighting, and support for multiple servers and channels. Enjoy seamless communication with features like automatic authentication and a built-in browser for links.
- Quick navigation with arrow buttons
- Event indicators for other channels
- Message highlighting and vibration
- Visual user information (whois)
- Built-in browser for URLs
- Multiple server and channel support
- Automatic Nickserv authentication
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LimeChat for iOS is a full featured IRC client. It allows you to chat on the go in the same way as you do on desktop. Features: ・Quick navigation. You can move around channels quickly by arrow buttons or tapping on the left/right side of log views. ・Arrow buttons indicate events (highlight, new message coming or new PM coming) happened in the other channels. So you can recognize it easily while chatting in another channel. ・Highlights messages and optionally vibrates for your specific words. ・Visual interface for user information (whois). ・Built-in browser for clickable URL links. ・Full support for landscape mode. ・Multitasking support. Connections are kept up for a while (2-7 minutes) after going to background. ・Multiple servers and channels. ・Automatic Nickserv authentication support. ・Full support for many text encodings. ・SSL support. (Self-signed certificates are NOT supported) ・VoiceOver support. Notes: ・DCC is NOT supported currently. **** ATTENTION **** I can't provide support to people leaving reviews on App Store. There is no way to reply to you here. If you have a problem or suggestion, please send a mail to psychs@limechat.net.
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.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Mastodon at Free against LimeChat's $4.99. Mastodon also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.1) and ratings volume (13K vs 11). LimeChat's advantage is review sentiment (65% vs 48%) and chart position (#62 vs unranked). On update cadence, 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
Mastodon is free to download; LimeChat costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Mastodon holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mastodon has 13K ratings behind it against 11, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 65% of LimeChat'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.
LimeChat ships an update every 5 weeks, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LimeChat | Mastodon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.1 (11 ratings) | 4.5 (13K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.2% of reviews — better | 48.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 11 | 13K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #62 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 110 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Satoshi Nakagawa | Mastodon GmbH |
Customer experience
LimeChat
Mastodon
User reviews
LimeChat
From 11 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and lightweight IRC client
- 👍 Clean, intuitive, and simple user interface
- 🔒 Supports SSL connections and security features
- 📱 Works well on both iPhone and iPad
- 🎯 Reliable and stable performance
Room to improve
- 🐛 Keyboard jumping/positioning issues on iOS
- 🔌 Disconnects when app is backgrounded
- 🐛 Connection drops on WiFi and VPN
- ❌ No background connectivity/refresh
- 🐛 Scrolling issues after sending messages
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
LimeChat
Reported bugs
14 issues- Keyboard jumps when sending messages (iOS 26.1)
- Scrolling breaks after message send
- App disconnects when backgrounded
- Connection drops on WiFi/VPN
- Keyboard doesn't appear on iPhone X
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- Keyboard positioning issues with external keyboards
- App crashes with multitasking
- Screen lock causes disconnection
- EOF errors disconnecting from server
- Channels don't open when using ZNC bouncer
- Long connection times over 3G
- Fuzzy/blurry icon on retina displays
- Input area moves up with external keyboard
- App becomes unresponsive intermittently
Requested features
20 requests- Background connectivity and app refresh
- Push/pop-up notifications
- Nick/username autocomplete
- Split view support for iPad
- Landscape mode
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Dark theme option
- Color text support
- DCC file transfer support
- Timestamps on messages
- Command history
- Swipe gestures between channels
- Hardware keyboard support
- Channel search feature
- More built-in server list
- Copy/paste improvements
- Scripting support
- Dynamic type for accessibility
- Nick completion with tab key
- Hide join/quit messages option
- Larger font size options
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
LimeChat
No in-app purchases
Mastodon
No in-app purchases









