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The Misskey wordmark in black on a white background with green circles
Image from Misskey Hub, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Comparison of Misskey Forks

The Misskey family of Fediverse servers is quite large. While they all share a common origin there are some notable feature differences between them.

Published: • Last edited:

This page aims to provide a rough timeline of each notable fork and a comparison of their features. The feature comparisons are for the latest stable releases of stable forks and development releases of developing/unmainted forks. If anything on this page is incorrect or out of date I’d appreciate if you could let me know: @pancakes@meow.company.

Featured Forks

IconNameVersionAccountWebsiteRepository
Misskey iconMisskey2024.11.0Nonehttps://misskey-hub.net/en/https://github.com/misskey-dev/misskey
FoundKey iconFoundKeyv13.0.0-preview6NoneNonehttps://akkoma.dev/FoundKeyGang/FoundKey
Firefish iconFirefishv20241205@firefish@info.firefish.devNonehttps://firefish.dev/firefish/firefish
Iceshrimp iconIceshrimp (JS)v2023.12.11NoneNonehttps://iceshrimp.dev/iceshrimp/iceshrimp
Sharkey iconSharkey2024.11.2@Sharkey@sharkey.teamhttps://joinsharkey.org/https://activitypub.software/TransFem-org/Sharkey

Iceshrimp

In previous versions of this page I referred to Iceshrimp (JS) as just “Iceshrimp”. Iceshrimp (JS) is currently under a feature freeze as most of the development effort is going towards the rewrite, Iceshrimp.NET. However, Iceshrimp (JS) is not unmaintained and still receives security updates. Please be aware that when the timeline says “Iceshrimp” it is referring to Iceshrimp (JS), not Iceshrimp.NET. Iceshrimp.NET will not be included on this page as it is not a fork of Misskey. For more information about Iceshrimp (JS) and Iceshrimp.NET see the README in the repository linked above.

Firefish

On 2024-09-05 Firefish entered maintenance mode and will reach end-of-support at the end of 2024. Server admins may want to downgrade to 20240206/1.0.5-rc and migrate to another *key fork. See the announcement post for more info.

Timeline of Events

The following chart is an approximate history of ActivityPub and Misskey. As well as the forks, their versioning, and differing states of activity.

2016-01-28  ActivityPub W3C First Public Working Draft

2017-02-06  Mastodon v1.0 (included for reference)

2018-04-19  Misskey v0.0.5018
             |
             | (peace in the Misskeyverse)
             |
2022-06-13  Misskey v12.111.1 ------------| (fork)
             |                            |
2022-07-19  Misskey v12.117.1             |
             |    | (fork)                |
2022-07-20   |   Calckey v12.117.1-calc   |
             |    |                       |
2022-08-05   |    |                      FoundKey v13.0.0-preview1
             |    |                       |
2023-06-05   |    |                      FoundKey v13.0.0-preview6
             |    |                       | (unmaintained)
             |    |
2023-06-25   |   Calckey v14.0.0-rc3  ----| (rebrand)
             |                            |
2023-07-20   |                           Firefish v1.0.0, v1.0.1 -| (fork)
             | (version scheme change)    |                       |
2023-09-14   |                            |                      Iceshrimp v2023.09.13-rc1
             |                            |                       |
2023-09-21  Misskey 2023.9.0-beta.10      |                       |
             |    | (fork)                |                       |
2023-10-07   |   Sharkey 2023.9.1.beta4   |                       |
             |    |                       |                       |
2023-11-14   |    |                       |                      Iceshrimp v2023.12.1
             |    |                       |                       |   | (fork)
2023-11-28   |    |                      Firefish v1.0.5-rc       |   |
             |    |                       | (unmaintained)        |   |
2024-01-09   |    |                       |                       |  Catodon 24.01-dev
             |    |                       | (transferred/revived) |   |
2024-02-06   |    |                      Firefish v20240206       |   |
             |    |                       |                       |   |
2024-09-05   |    |                       | (enter maintenance)   |   |
             |    |                       |                       |   |
2024-12-31   |    |                       | (end-of-support)      |   |
             |    |                                               |   |

Feature Comparison

Comparison of features between Misskey forks
MisskeyFoundKeyFirefishIceshrimp (JS)Sharkey
StatusStableUnmaintainedUnmaintainedMaintenance modeStable
General
Authorized FetchNoNoYesYesYes
Full Text SearchBuilt-in or MeiliSearchElasticSearchSonic, MeiliSearch, or ElasticSearchBuilt-inBuilt-in or MeiliSearch
Push NotificationsYesYesYesYesYes
TutorialYesYesYesYesYes
Integration
DiscordNoNoYesYesNo
GitHubNoNoYesYesNo
Mastodon APINoNoPartialYesYes
TensorFlowYesNoYesNoNo
WebhookYesYesYesYesYes
Timelines
AntennasYesYesYesYesYes
Bubble/RecommendedNoNoYesYesYes
ChannelsYesYesYesYesYes
SocialYesNoYesYesYes
User ListsYesYesYesYesYes
Posts
FederationYesYesYesYesYes
Editing & HistoryRemoved in 2023.10.0View onlyEditing onlyEditing onlyYes
Favorite/Like ButtonNoNoYesYesYes
Post LanguageNoNoYesNoNo
Module PlayerNoYesYesNoYes
Boost VisibilityNoNoYesYesYes
Report PostsYesYesYesYesYes
Markdown
Misskey Flavoured Markdown (MFM)YesYesYesYesYes
MFM borderYesNoNoYesYes
MFM center<center> only<center> onlyYesYes<center> only
MFM cropNoNoYesYesYes
MFM fadeNoNoYesYesYes
MFM followmouseNoNoNoYesYes
Per Note MFM Animation ToggleNoNoNoYesYes
Markdown ListsNoNoNoNoNo
Math FormulasNoNoYesYesYes
Users
Avatar DecorationsNot federatedNoNoNoNot federated
Profile BackgroundNoNoNoNoYes
Cat Mode & Speak as CatCat Mode onlyCat Mode onlyYesYesYes
Link VerificationYesNoYesYesYes
RolesYesNoNoNoYes
ListenBrainz StatusNoNoNoNoYes
FeedsYesYesYesYesYes
ClipsYesYesYesYesYes
GalleryYesYesYesYesYes
PagesYesYesYesYesYes
Post BackfillNoNoYesYesYes
Mute UsersYesYesYesYesYes
Block UsersYesYesYesYesYes
Report UsersYesYesYesYesYes
Disable Post IndexingNoNoYesYesYes
Import/ExportAll notes, Favorite notes, Followed users, User lists, Muted users, Blocked users, and AntennasAll posts, Followed users, User lists, Muted users, and Blocked usersAll posts, Followed users, User lists, Muted users, and Blocked usersAll posts, Followed users, User lists, Muted users, and Blocked usersAll notes, Favorite notes, Followed users, User lists, Muted users, Blocked users, and Antennas
Post ImportNoNoMastodon+NoMastodon+, Pleroma, Akkoma, Misskey+, Firefish+, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
GDPR Data Subject Access RequestsNoNoNoNoYes
MigrationYesReceive onlyYesYesYes
Moderation
Approve UsersNoNoNoNoYes
Silence UsersYesNoYesYesYes
Mark User Media NSFWNoNoNoYesYes

Glossary

Brief descriptions of each feature listed above. I’m keeping them vague as they vary based on software and more broadly across the Fediverse.

Legends

General

Integration

Timelines

Posts

Markdown

Users

Moderation

Special Thanks

Corrections