Hubzilla review 2026: what this open-source decentralized social platform does, the Zot protocol, self-hosting, pros, cons, and Fediverse alternatives.
Hubzilla is open-source software that individuals or organizations install on their own server, called a 'hub,' which then federates with other independently run hubs to form a decentralized network its community calls 'the grid.' It descends from Mike Macgirvin's earlier project Mistpark and its successor Friendica, forked in 2012 to explore a new decentralized identity system that eventually became the Zot protocol and, ultimately, Hubzilla.
Unlike most social platforms, Hubzilla is not a single service you sign up for -- it is software you (or a hub operator you trust) run yourself, and there is no central company or SaaS offering behind it. Development is community-driven and released under the AGPLv3 open-source license.
At the core is the Zot protocol, which handles decentralized identity, cross-hub authentication, and fine-grained permissions. This enables 'nomadic identity': a user's channel, including their content, connections, and permissions, can be cloned across multiple hubs, so the account is not permanently tied to any single server the way most federated platforms bind you to your home instance.
Beyond social networking (activity streams, wall posts, groups, private messaging), Hubzilla doubles as a lightweight CMS for building websites, a file and photo storage/sharing tool, a forum and wiki host, and a calendar/events system, all reachable through a single sign-on across every hub a user's identity touches. For federation beyond the Zot-native grid, Hubzilla speaks ActivityPub, Diaspora, DFRN, and OStatus, letting it interoperate with Mastodon and other Fediverse software.
Hubzilla itself is free, open-source software with no licensing cost. There is no official hosted plan or subscription tier from a central vendor; instead, users either run their own hub on a VPS or dedicated server, or join a hub operated by a volunteer or community that offers accounts.
The only real cost is server hosting, which for a small hub typically runs a few dollars to a few tens of dollars per month depending on storage, bandwidth, and traffic, plus the time required for a technically capable administrator to install, configure, and maintain the software.
Hubzilla is a free, open-source platform combining social networking, a CMS, file sharing, forums, and wikis, run on self-hosted servers called hubs that federate together into a decentralized network.
Hubzilla descends from Mike Macgirvin's earlier Mistpark and Friendica projects; he forked it in 2012 to build the Zot protocol, which evolved into Hubzilla before he handed project coordination to the community in 2015.
Yes, the software is free and open source under the AGPLv3 license. The only cost is hosting your own server or finding a hub operator willing to host your account.
Nomadic identity, powered by the Zot protocol, lets a user clone their channel, content, and connections across multiple hubs so their identity is not tied to a single server.
Yes, Hubzilla supports the ActivityPub protocol among others, allowing it to federate with Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms.
Both share the same creator and lineage, but Hubzilla adds broader CMS, file-sharing, wiki, and nomadic-identity capabilities, while Friendica remains more narrowly focused on social networking.