Comparison

Minds.com vs Mastodon

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

Head to head
About

Minds.com

An open-source social network focused on internet freedom, privacy, and free speech. Users can earn crypto rewards and have control over their social media experience. The platform prioritizes transparency and community governance.

Highlights
  • Open source platform
  • Free speech focus
  • Privacy protection
  • Earn crypto rewards
  • Community governance
  • Transparent algorithms
Read full description

Minds is an open source social network dedicated to Internet freedom. Speak freely, protect your privacy, earn crypto rewards and take back control of your social media. We're on a mission to elevate global discourse through Internet freedom. Internet freedom means: ■ Free speech ■ Privacy ■ Open source ■ Self-sovereignty ■ Community governance Our code and algorithms are free and open source for maximum transparency and accountability. Our content policy is based on the First Amendment and governed by a community jury in order to minimize bias and censorship. We believe you can only change someone's mind if you provide them with a platform to speak it. For support, questions, or more information, please visit: https://www.minds.com/help Open source code: https://developers.minds.com Contact us at info@minds.com Terms of Use: 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

Minds.com4 screens
Mastodon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mastodon at none against Minds.com's 8. Mastodon also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (13K vs 1.6K). Minds.com's advantage is review sentiment (75% vs 48%) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.6). On price, rating, update cadence 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. Minds.com sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Mastodon asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Mastodon holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mastodon has 13K ratings behind it against 1.6K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 75% of Minds.com'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

Minds.com ships an update every 5 weeks, Mastodon monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Minds.com versus Mastodon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMinds.comMastodon
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (1.6K ratings)4.5 (13K ratings) — better
Positive reviews74.8% of reviews — better48.3% of reviews
Number of ratings1.6K13K — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksMonthly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size36 MB110 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperMINDS.ORG, INC.Mastodon GmbH

Customer experience

Minds.com

All ratings1,632 ratings
Positive83.4%
Neutral5.0%
Negative11.6%
Written reviews660 reviews
Positive74.8%
Neutral7.1%
Negative18.0%

Mastodon

All ratings13,481 ratings
Positive88.8%
Neutral5.9%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews888 reviews
Positive48.3%
Neutral18.8%
Negative32.9%

User reviews

Minds.com

From 1.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Smooth performance
  • 🔒 Uncensored platform
  • 💰 Ability to earn crypto
  • 🗣️ Supports free speech

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes
  • 🤔 Confusing interface
  • 🤷‍♂️ Limited user base
  • 🤖 Presence of bots/trolls

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

Minds.com

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login issues
  • Inconsistent video playback
  • Posting/commenting problems

Requested features

4 requests
  • Improved search and discovery
  • Better content organization
  • Integration with other platforms
  • Enhanced moderation tools

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

8 purchases

Minds.com

Subscriptions4
  • Plus Daily Test Subscription$0.997 Days
  • Plus Monthly Subscription$12.991 Month
  • Pro Monthly Subscription$69.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Plus Yearly Subscription$129.991 Year
One-time4
  • Boost.Consumable $1$1.00
  • Boost.Consumable $10$10.00
  • Boost.Consumable $30$30.00
Show 1 more
  • Boost.Consumable $300$300.00
None

Mastodon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Minds.com free?
Minds.com 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, Minds.com or Mastodon?
Mastodon is rated higher. Minds.com averages 4.3 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while Mastodon averages 4.5 from 13K ratings.
Do Minds.com or Mastodon have ads?
Minds.com shows ads; Mastodon does not.
Which is updated more often, Minds.com or Mastodon?
Minds.com ships an update every 5 weeks, and Mastodon monthly. Most recently, Minds.com was updated on October 12, 2026 and Mastodon on October 13, 2026.

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