Comparison

Product Hunt vs Mastodon

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

Head to head
About

Product Hunt

Discover the latest tech and startup products daily. Engage with a supportive community of enthusiasts and makers to provide feedback, find new tools, and stay ahead of trends. Launch your own ideas and get them noticed.

Highlights
  • Daily new product discovery
  • Community feedback and support
  • Launch new tech ideas
  • Explore trending technology
  • Follow specific interests
  • Engage in discussions
Features
Read full description

Product Hunt gives you the front-row seat to everything that’s happening in tech and startups. It’s the place to launch your ideas and discover your next favorite product. We’re a welcoming and supportive community for tech enthusiasts. Whether you’re an indie developer, using no-code tools, buying Twitter, or somewhere in between, our community is the place for you. From calendar apps to the latest in SaaS, makers post their work looking for your support, feedback, and reviews to take their idea to the next level. Companies like Loom, Notion, Figma, Stripe, and Shopify have launched on Product Hunt to find their first users, figure out product-market fit, and test new features. We’ve seen makers ride their upvotes straight to the moon. Which one will be next? Only you can decide. Create an account and see what you’ll find on Product Hunt: - Always fresh: New ideas and products every day - Try the trends: Be the first to test out cutting-edge technology that's trending right now - Upvote your favorites: Your vote helps the most interesting ideas stand out - Follow your interests: Explore collections of apps and tools for topics you care about - Friendly feedback: Share your thoughts and experiences directly with the makers - Meet the people behind the products: Get inspired by stories, Q&As, and AMAs with makers - Nerd out: Create and join discussions with other tech-lovers in the community

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

Product Hunt4 screens
Mastodon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Product Hunt at 4.8 against Mastodon's 4.5. Product Hunt also leads on update cadence (every 9 days vs monthly) and review sentiment (64% vs 48%). Mastodon's advantage is ratings volume (13K vs 3.8K). On price, 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

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

Product Hunt holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3.8K and 13K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Product Hunt's written reviews are positive against 48% of Mastodon's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Product Hunt ships an update every 9 days, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Product Hunt versus Mastodon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterProduct HuntMastodon
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (3.8K ratings) — better4.5 (13K ratings)
Positive reviews63.6% of reviews — better48.3% of reviews
Number of ratings3.8K13K — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size139 MB110 MB
Age rating9+17+
DeveloperProduct Hunt Inc.Mastodon GmbH

Customer experience

Product Hunt

All ratings3,426 ratings
Positive96.0%
Neutral1.3%
Negative2.7%
Written reviews448 reviews
Positive63.6%
Neutral9.4%
Negative27.0%

Mastodon

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

User reviews

Product Hunt

From 3.8K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great for seeing new products
  • 👍 Useful for finding innovative products
  • 👍 Helpful community
  • 👍 Clean and fast app
  • 👍 Convenient mobile experience

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Unresponsive UI and navigation issues
  • 🐛 Sync issues between app and website
  • 🐛 Performance problems on some devices
  • 🔋 High battery consumption

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

Product Hunt

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Login issues and repeatedly asking to sign in
  • Inability to view past days' products after navigating away
  • Crashes when trying to view product details
  • Scrolling issues and content not loading properly

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to submit/upload new products
  • Improve search and filtering functionality
  • Bring back simple list view without images
  • Add support for iPad
  • Improve personalization and customization 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

None

Product Hunt

No in-app purchases

None

Mastodon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Product Hunt free?
Product Hunt 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, Product Hunt or Mastodon?
Product Hunt is rated higher. Product Hunt averages 4.8 out of 5 from 3.8K ratings, while Mastodon averages 4.5 from 13K ratings.
Do Product Hunt or Mastodon have ads?
Neither Product Hunt nor Mastodon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Product Hunt or Mastodon?
Product Hunt ships an update every 9 days, and Mastodon monthly. Most recently, Product Hunt was updated on November 1, 2026 and Mastodon on November 5, 2026.

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