Comparison

Kickstarter vs Mastodon

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

Head to head
About

Kickstarter

Explore and support innovative projects across various creative fields. Discover groundbreaking ideas in games, technology, art, and more. Pledge to projects that inspire you and stay updated on their progress.

Highlights
  • Discover creative projects globally
  • Pledge to projects
  • Receive project updates
  • Track backings
  • Join a global creative community
Features
Read full description

Discover, back, and bring bold ideas to life. The Kickstarter app connects you with groundbreaking projects across games, publishing, technology, comics, and film. Whether you’re passionate about design, gadgets, stories, or innovation, there’s something for everyone. Use the app to: • Browse creative projects from around the world • Pledge to projects that align with your passions • Stay in the loop with updates and reminders • Follow your backings in one place • Join a global movement that fuels ideas worth sharing Start discovering today and help the next big idea take off.

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

Kickstarter4 screens
Mastodon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Mastodon at none against Kickstarter's shown. Mastodon also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and review sentiment (48% vs 32%). Kickstarter's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and chart position (#166 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Kickstarter holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 60K and 13K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 32% of Kickstarter'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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Kickstarter ships an update every 4 weeks, Mastodon monthly. Both last shipped on November 11, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Kickstarter versus Mastodon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKickstarterMastodon
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (60K ratings) — better4.5 (13K ratings)
Positive reviews32.4% of reviews48.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings60K — better13K
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#166 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size129 MB110 MB
Age rating12+17+
DeveloperKickstarter, PBCMastodon GmbH

Customer experience

Kickstarter

All ratings59,049 ratings
Positive95.4%
Neutral1.6%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews1,708 reviews
Positive32.4%
Neutral8.1%
Negative59.5%

Mastodon

All ratings13,482 ratings
Positive88.8%
Neutral5.9%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews890 reviews
Positive48.3%
Neutral18.8%
Negative32.9%

User reviews

Kickstarter

From 60K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Handy tracker for backed projects
  • 👍 Great app and great service
  • 🚀 Bypass the traditional economy!
  • 👍 Very nice
  • 👍 Excellent

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Works well enough unless you support a lot of projects
  • 🐛 App is very buggy
  • 🔒 Scammers Paradise
  • 🔒 Don't fall into the trap
  • 🔒 platform setup to scam you

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

Kickstarter

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Explore tab broken in latest update
  • Notifications not working correctly
  • Activity feed not updating
  • Issues with submitting surveys through the app
  • Clunky UI, especially when updating pledges

Requested features

6 requests
  • Allow filtering backed projects by status (received, active, closed)
  • Ability to follow creators directly in the app
  • Improve comments section (threading, search, etc.)
  • Add an archive/delete function for completed/cancelled projects
  • Introduce a read/unread project status
Show 1 more
  • Allow users to block problematic creators

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

None

Kickstarter

No in-app purchases

None

Mastodon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Kickstarter free?
Kickstarter is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Mastodon free?
Mastodon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Kickstarter or Mastodon?
Kickstarter is rated higher. Kickstarter averages 4.8 out of 5 from 60K ratings, while Mastodon averages 4.5 from 13K ratings.
Do Kickstarter or Mastodon have ads?
Kickstarter shows ads; Mastodon does not.
Which is updated more often, Kickstarter or Mastodon?
Kickstarter ships an update every 4 weeks, and Mastodon monthly. Most recently, Kickstarter was updated on November 11, 2026 and Mastodon on November 11, 2026.

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