What it does
Friendica is free, open-source software for running a social community that connects with other independent networks. Operators control registration, member accounts, add-ons and the community's presentation. Running a server requires hosting and a local administrator account.
Friendica can receive posts from other federated networks as well as RSS feeds, with controls over who can see your own content. An organization can run its own server instead of depending on another community's admission rules.
After installation, register your personal account using the administrator email configured for the server. Hosting must support the background worker that processes communication; a working web page alone is not enough.
In the Admin Panel, choose open, approval-based or closed registration. Invitation-only access also requires the configuration setting and an open or approval-based policy. Requests awaiting approval appear above existing accounts in Users, where administrators can approve requests, sort accounts and block or unblock members. Additional page accounts remain subject to the approval policy.
The overview separates outgoing delivery queues from internal background tasks. This helps distinguish delayed communication from a member-account problem.
Strengths
- Registration approval and member controls share the Admin Panel
- Delivery queues are separated from internal background tasks
Watch out for
- Invitation-only registration also requires a configuration setting
- Hosting must support the communication worker
Best for
- Groups administering membership on their own federated social node
Sources
- friendica – A Decentralized Social Network (Oct 26, 2026)
- # Settings (Oct 26, 2026)
- GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (Oct 26, 2026)
- Release Friendica 2026.05 released · friendica/friendica · GitHub (Oct 26, 2026)
- Friendica Communications Platform (Oct 27, 2026)
- Friendica administration settings (Oct 27, 2026)
- Friendica installation (Oct 27, 2026)