This scoring system evaluates how decentralized and self-hostable a platform is, based on four core metrics.

📊 Scoring Metrics (Total: 100 Points)

Metric Weight Description
Top Provider User Share 30 Measures how many users are on the largest instance. Full points if <20%; 0 if >80%.
Top Provider Content Share 30 Measures how much content is hosted by the largest instance. Full points if <20%; 0 if >80%.
Ease of Self-Hosting: Server 20 Technical ease of running your own backend. Full points for simple setup with good docs.
Ease of Self-Hosting: User Interface 20 Availability and usability of clients. Full points for accessible, FOSS, multi-platform clients.

📋 Example Breakdown (Estimates)

Platform Score Visualization
📧 Email 95 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🐹 Lemmy 79 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🐘 Mastodon 74 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟣 PeerTube 94 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🖼 Pixelfed 42 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧
🔵 Bluesky 14 🟥🟥🟥
🟥 Reddit 3 🟥

📧 Email

  • Top Provider User Share: Google ≈ 17% → Score: 30/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Google handles ≈ 17% of mail → Score: 30/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Easy (Can leverage hundreds of email hosting options) → Score: 16/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Easy (Thunderbird, K-9, etc.) → Score: 19/20

Total: 95/100

🐹 Lemmy

  • Top Provider User Share: lemmy.world ≈ 37% → Score: 21.5/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: lemmy.world hosts ≈ 37% content → Score: 21.5/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Easy (Docker, low resource) → Score: 18/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Good FOSS apps, web UI → Score: 18/20

Total: 79/100

🐘 Mastodon

  • Top Provider User Share: mastodon.social ≈ 40% → Score: 20/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: mastodon.social ≈ 45–50% content → Score: 20/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Docker setup, moderate difficulty → Score: 15/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Strong ecosystem (Tusky, web, etc.) → Score: 19/20

Total: 74/100

🟣 PeerTube

  • Top Provider User Share: wirtube.de ≈ 14% → Score: 30/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Approximately 14% → Score: 30/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Docker, active community, moderate resources → Score: 16/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Web-first UI, FOSS, some mobile options → Score: 18/20

Total: 94/100

🖼 Pixelfed

  • Top Provider User Share: pixelfed.social ≈ 71% → Score: 4.5/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Approximately 71% → Score: 4.5/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Laravel-based, Docker available, some config needed → Score: 15/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Web UI, FOSS, mobile apps in progress → Score: 18/20

Total: 42/100

🔵 Bluesky

  • Top Provider User Share: bsky.social ≈ 99% → Score: 0/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Nearly all content on bsky.social → Score: 0/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: PDS hosting possible but very niche and poorly documented → Score: 4/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Mostly official client; some 3rd party → Score: 10/20

Total: 14/100

🟠 Reddit

  • Top Provider User Share: Reddit hosts 100% of user accounts → Score: 0/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Reddit hosts all user-generated content → Score: 0/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Not self-hostable (proprietary platform) → Score: 0/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Some unofficial clients available → Score: 3/20

Total: 3/100

How Scores are Calculated

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 How User/Content Share Scores Work

This measures how many users are on the largest provider (or instance).

  • No provider > 20%: If no provider has more than 20%, it gets full 30 points.
  • Between 20% and 80%: Anything in between is scored on a linear scale.
  • > 80%: If a provider has more than 80%, it gets 0 points.

📊 Formula:

Score = 30 × (1 - (TopProviderShare - 20) / 60)
…but only if TopProviderShare is between 20% and 80%.
If below 20%, full 30. If above 80%, zero.

📌 Example:

If one provider has 40% of all users:
→ Score = 30 × (1 - (40 - 20) / 60) = 30 × (1 - 0.43) = 17.1 points

🖥️ How Ease of Self-Hosting Scores Work

These scores measure how easy it is for individuals or communities to run their own servers or use clients.

This looks at how technically easy it is to run your own backend (e.g., email server, Mastodon server) or User Interface (e.g., web-interface or mobile-app)

  • Very Easy: One-command or setup wizard, great documentation → 18–20 points
  • Moderate: Docker or manual setup, some config, active community support → 13–17 points
  • Hard: Complex setup, needs regular updates or custom config, poor documentation → 6–12 points
  • Very Hard or Proprietary: Little to no self-hosting support, undocumented → 0–5 points

📚 Sources

Footnotes

This is a work in progress and may contain mistakes. If you have ideas or suggestions for improvement, feel free to let me know.

Source: https://github.com/NoBadDays/decentralization-score/blob/main/decentralization_score_2025.04.md

  • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.deEnglish
    191·
    1 day ago

    Having set up a couple of mail servers myself, I wouldn’t call it easy. Most solutions boil down to a tangled web of dovecot, postfix, ldap and amavis. There are preconfigured docker containers which make setup easier than a couple of years ago but if your use case is even just slightly different than the maintainers’, you’ll have to dive deep into a few dozen different config files. And of course, you’ll have to find out how to configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC to have even a remote chance of your mails getting through to the big providers. I’d probably give email somewhere in the range of 8-12 points in that category.

    Other than that, great summary!

    • AnonomousWolf@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      The scoring system is basically there to put a number on “How free are users and hosts of a platform to move around?” Or “How much power is in the hands of the people and not a few companies?”

      For me Email scores very high in this regard.

      As far as I know most Lemmy instances leverages paid-for or freemium services to have their instances work easily/properly

      • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.deEnglish
        1·
        5 hours ago

        Then please update your category name to reflect that. Right now it says “Self-Hosting” which to the majority of readers means hosting it yourself, whatever the reason may be: privacy, configurability or just being safe from future enshittification.

        As far as I know most Lemmy instances leverages paid-for or freemium services to have their instances work easily/properly

        Yes but you can’t compare a whole lemmy instance to an account on an email server that you share with others. The fair comparison would be hosting a lemmy instance to hosting your own email server and creating an account on Proton Mail to creating an account (or a community) on lemmy.world.

        This looks at how technically easy it is to run your own backend (e.g., email server, Mastodon server)

        Edit: also the description text “This looks at how technically easy it is to run your own backend (e.g., email server, Mastodon server)”. Relying on Proton Mail or similar free services is not running your own backend.

        • AnonomousWolf@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          1·
          3 hours ago

          You’re right, thanks for the input. I’ll make adjustments to take care of these flaws in the scoring system.