@deutrino

Forte

Advantages:

• written in PHP, runs on a LAMP stack
• uses much fewer system resources than Mastodon while being magnitudes more powerful
• comes with a git-based update script
• result of over 15 years of development (traces back to Friendica from 2010)
• developed by a retired professional developer with almost half a century of experience who has made more Fediverse server apps than anyone else and even more decentralised protocols than anyone else
• does not cache everyone's images and media
• Facebook-like; not a microblogging system
• highly configurable Web UI
• your login/account is not your identity; you can have as many fully independent channels/identities (each corresponding to one full-blown Mastodon account) on the same login/account and switch between them without logging out
• nomadic identity; if you run another server (or you find a public server, and Forte doesn't have any), you can clone your channel between multiple servers and make it resilient against server outage
• over 24 million characters
• full set of text formatting, using BBcode, Markdown and HTML
• supports both titles and summaries (Mastodon understands summaries as CWs)
• embed as many images as you want within the post (as in text, image, more text, another image, even more text etc., like a blog post)
• can double as a long-form blog
• can optionally send multiple-paragraph posts as Article-type objects
• the most advanced permissions system in the whole Fediverse
• full support for threaded conversations; see entire conversations by default instead of single-message piecemeal like on Mastodon; supports FEP-171b Conversation Containers
• supports groups; built-in group functionality including moderated groups and private groups as well as hiding groups (and other channels) from directories
• has at least one support group on (streams)
• built-in cloud file storage which is also used for embedded images; ties into the permissions system; WebDAV connectivity
• built-in federating event calendar
• built-in headless CalDAV calendar server
• built-in headless CardDAV addressbook server
• highly modular, comes with lots of add-ons called "apps"

• steep learning curve, especially if all you're used to are Twitter and Mastodon (this looks, feels and handles absolutely nothing like Mastodon, so you'll have to relearn everything from the ground up and learn tons of stuff on top)
• does not cosy up to Mastodon at all, makes few to no concessions for more compatibility with Mastodon
• will need configuration before you can really get started
• doesn't post in public by default; configuration needed if you want to always post in public
• poor documentation
• doesn't work with any phone app out there; progressive Web app with the Web interface is the best you can do on a phone

• implements ActivityPub by the book (whereas other Fediverse server applications "implement Mastodon" rather than implementing ActivityPub)

• direct precursor of Forte which is forked from it
• from the same developer
• officially and intentionally nameless and brandless ("streams" is the name of the code repository)
• has at least two public, open-registration servers, but they're hard to find
• uses the same support group
• based on its own protocol, Nomad, which has even better support for nomadic identity; ActivityPub is optional and on by default on new channels
• cannot clone from or to Forte

• older than Mastodon (forked from a Friendica fork in 2011, development started in 2012, became Hubzilla in 2015, still 10 months before Mastodon)
• created by the same developer, now maintained by two other devs
• server lists readily available on FediDB and Fediverse Observer (in case you want to try it first or clone to a public server)
• even steeper learning curve
• ActivityPub is off by default for new channels, must be activated in order for Hubzilla to federate with most of the rest of the Fediverse
• can optionally federate with diaspora* as well
• can subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds
• requires another bit more of configuration before you can get started
• way better documentation written by a user
• one public and multiple private profiles per channel, can be assigned to certain contacts
• over 16.7 million characters
• text formatting only with BBcode
• cannot send Article-type objects, always sends Note-type objects
• the second-most advanced permissions system in the Fediverse (a bit more complicated and less adapted to today's Fediverse; also, not quite as detailed reply control)
• even more configurable UI
• CalDAV calendar can use the event calender UI
• optional non-federating long-form articles
• optional non-federating wikis (as in multiple wikis per channel with multiple pages per wiki)
• optional non-federating "planning cards"
• optional non-federating webpages