Comparison

mewe vs Mastodon

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

Head to head
About

mewe

A decentralized social network prioritizing user privacy with no algorithms or data targeting. Connect with others through interest groups and enjoy a controlled social media experience. Offers free features and an optional premium tier for enhanced communication and storage.

Highlights
  • No algorithms in newsfeed
  • Decentralized identity
  • Group and 1:1 chat
  • Private and open groups
  • 2GB cloud storage
  • Scheduled post capabilities
Features
Read full description

A social network where you actually find your people. Share what you’re up to. Post photos to your profile. Catch up with friends and family. And when you want to go deeper on something you love, there are more than 700,000 groups waiting - vintage motorcycles, sourdough, birding, parents of twins. The obscure thing you assumed nobody else cared about? Someone’s already posting about it. YOUR PROFILE, YOUR POSTS Share text, photos, and video with the people who follow you. Schedule posts for later. Keep 2GB of cloud storage free. YOUR FEED, YOUR CALL Chronological when you want to catch up on the people you follow. Discovery when you want to find something new. GROUPS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE Public groups to discover, private groups for the people you trust, and full control over how your own community runs. TALK LIKE PEOPLE ACTUALLY TALK Group chats and 1:1 messaging. Voice and video calls anywhere in the world. YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS We don’t sell it. Not to advertisers, not to anyone. MEWE PREMIUM — $6.49/month or $69.99/year - Ad-free browsing - Unlimited worldwide voice and video calling - Full HD video quality - 100GB additional cloud storage - Exclusive stickers and emoji - Premium profile badge Download mewe and find your people. Privacy Policy: mewe.com/privacy Terms of Service: mewe.com/terms Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

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

mewe4 screens
Mastodon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mastodon at none against mewe's 11. mewe's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (294K vs 13K). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. mewe sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Mastodon asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for mewe against 4.5 for Mastodon. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: mewe has 294K ratings behind it against 13K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 44% of mewe's written reviews are positive against 48% of Mastodon's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

mewe ships an update every 8 days, Mastodon monthly. Both last shipped on November 2, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
mewe versus Mastodon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametermeweMastodon
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (294K ratings)4.5 (13K ratings) — better
Positive reviews43.9% of reviews48.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings294K — better13K
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size199 MB110 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperSgrouples, Inc.Mastodon GmbH

Customer experience

mewe

All ratings294,241 ratings
Positive84.9%
Neutral8.7%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews1,319 reviews
Positive43.9%
Neutral13.4%
Negative42.7%

Mastodon

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

User reviews

mewe

From 294K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Solid app
  • 🔒 Privacy-focused
  • 👍 Censorship-free
  • 💡 Refreshing alternative to Facebook
  • 🚀 Fast and efficient

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy app with crashes
  • 🔍 Difficult to navigate
  • 🤖 Lacks user-friendly features
  • 💰 Paywall for premium features
  • 🤔 Inconsistent moderation

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

mewe

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes after updates
  • Inability to log in or reset password
  • Glitches with photo/video uploads
  • Messaging and chat issues
  • Inconsistent app performance

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to save posts
  • Improved search and discovery
  • Better group management tools
  • Seamless mobile experience
  • Customizable news feed

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

10 purchases

mewe

Subscriptions9
  • Voice & Video Calling3 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Page1 Month trial$1.991 Month
  • Journals1 Month trial$1.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Cloud Storage (50GB)$3.991 Month
  • Tier 1 Donation$4.991 Month
  • Cloud Storage (100GB)$5.991 Month
  • MeWe Premium$6.491 Month
  • Premium Promotion1 Month trial$6.491 Month
  • Premium Promotion1 Month trial$69.991 Year
One-time1
  • Dark Theme$1.99
None

Mastodon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is mewe free?
mewe is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Mastodon free?
Mastodon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, mewe or Mastodon?
Mastodon is rated higher. mewe averages 4.4 out of 5 from 294K ratings, while Mastodon averages 4.5 from 13K ratings.
Do mewe or Mastodon have ads?
Neither mewe nor Mastodon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, mewe or Mastodon?
mewe ships an update every 8 days, and Mastodon monthly. Most recently, mewe was updated on November 2, 2026 and Mastodon on November 2, 2026.

Other comparisons