Colloquy vs Mastodon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Colloquy
This app brings the functionality of a popular desktop IRC client to your mobile device. It offers a full-featured experience optimized for on-the-go use with iOS multitasking and push notifications. Enjoy customizable settings, message highlighting, and robust IRC command support.
- Retina display support
- iOS multitasking and split-screen
- Push notifications with bouncer
- Nickname and emoticon completion
- Message highlighting and vibration
- Customizable interface and behavior
- WHOIS user information display
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Colloquy for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch puts the power of the most popular IRC client for the Mac in the palm of your hand. Built atop the Chat Core framework, Colloquy Mobile is a full featured client optimized for the on-the-go experience with iOS multitasking support. Unique Features: • Support for retina devices, including iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Pro. • Support for iOS multitasking with local notifications and split-screen support. • Push notifications when using a compatible push bouncer. • Convenient nickname and emoticon completion popups. • Support for all the common IRC commands with completion. • Organized Colloquies view that shows all your conversations and rooms at a glance. • Highlights messages (and optionally vibrates) when your specific words or nickname is mentioned. • Highly customizable interface and behavior settings within the Settings application. • Visual display of user information (WHOIS) for any user. • Full support for landscape mode in the entire application. • Stays connected while iPhone is locked and when SMS alerts appear. • Searchable room member list. • Support for SASL authentication (required when connecting to Freenode over the cell network.) • A console for every connection. • Support for ignoring annoying users. Standard Features: • Multiple message styles to choose from. • Fully compatible with mIRC colors and formatting. • Large selection of graphical emoticons. • Allows you to join multiple chat rooms across many different servers. • Automatic identification with network services (NickServ). • Notification of common server errors as easy to understand alerts. • Automatically join rooms and send commands upon connect. • Solid support for secure connections over SSL and TLS. • Full support for room and connection text encodings. • Full IRCv3 compatibility, including the IRCv3.2 standard. • Open minded and Open Source, like it should be. ATTENTION: We can't provide support here to people leaving reviews, as much as we want to. We also can't discuss feature requests, since there is no way to reply to you here. If you have a problem or suggestion, please visit us in #colloquy-mobile on irc.freenode.net, click the support link below, or email us at support@colloquy.mobi.
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 Colloquy's $1.99. Mastodon also leads on rating (4.5 vs 1.8) and ratings volume (13K vs 32). Colloquy's advantage is chart position (#59 vs unranked) and update cadence (fortnightly vs monthly). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
Mastodon is free to download; Colloquy costs $1.99 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 1.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mastodon has 13K ratings behind it against 32, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 39% of Colloquy's written reviews are positive against 48% of Mastodon's.
Colloquy ships an update fortnightly, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Colloquy | Mastodon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 1.8 (32 ratings) | 4.5 (13K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 39.3% of reviews | 48.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 32 | 13K — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #59 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 111 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Colloquy Project | Mastodon GmbH |
Customer experience
Colloquy
Mastodon
User reviews
Colloquy
From 32 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Reliable connection
- 👍 Thoughtful design
- 🔒 Handles bouncer setup well
- 📱 Works great on iOS
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and bugs
- 🔍 Difficult to use for new users
- 🔋 Disconnects after inactivity
- 🔍 Confusing interface
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
Colloquy
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes on startup
- Text entry box issues
- Inconsistent user list display
- Broken features after updates
Requested features
4 requests- Dark mode option
- Longer background timeout
- Improved search and user list
- Better file transfer support
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
Colloquy
No in-app purchases
Mastodon
No in-app purchases









