Mobilizon review: free federated event-organizing platform features, pricing, ActivityPub federation, and alternatives to Facebook Events for 2026.
Category
Scheduling
Pricing
Open Source, from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Founded
2018
Web AppOpen SourceSelf-Hosted
Overview
Mobilizon was announced in December 2018 by Framasoft, a French non-profit known for ethical tech alternatives such as PeerTube, and was funded through a public crowdfunding campaign before launching in October 2020. In 2024, maintenance passed from Framasoft to another French non-profit, Kaihuri, which continues to receive NLnet funding to sustain the project.
The platform is built on ActivityPub, the same federation protocol used by Mastodon and PeerTube, allowing independently hosted Mobilizon instances to interconnect and share events and groups rather than relying on a single centralized service.
Key Features
Mobilizon lets users create public or private events, form groups with shared calendars and discussion tools, manage RSVPs and attendees, and set up recurring event series, all without advertising or behavioral tracking.
Instance administrators get moderation tools to manage their community, and data can be exported via iCal and RSS feeds, making it easy to integrate Mobilizon events into external calendars and other fediverse or web tools.
Pricing
Mobilizon software is entirely free and open source under the AGPL license, with no purchase price or subscription required to use it.
Users can join an existing public instance run by a community or non-profit at no cost, or self-host their own instance on a VPS, in which case the only expense is server hosting; instance operators are typically funded by donations rather than advertising or data monetization.
Key Features
Federated Instances via ActivityPub — Independently hosted Mobilizon instances interconnect and share events using the ActivityPub protocol.
Public and Private Events — Users can create events visible to everyone or restricted to specific groups or attendees.
Groups with Shared Calendars — Organizations can form groups with their own event calendars and internal discussion tools.
RSVP and Attendee Management — Tracks attendee responses and manages event capacity and participation.
Recurring and Series Events — Supports setting up event series and recurring occurrences without recreating each event.
Instance Moderation Tools — Gives instance administrators tools to moderate content and manage their community.
iCal and RSS Export — Exports event data to standard calendar and feed formats for integration with other tools.
Privacy-First Design — Built without advertising or behavioral tracking, in line with Framasoft's ethical software mission.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Fully free and open source under the AGPL license
Federated architecture avoids reliance on a single corporate platform
No advertising or behavioral tracking, unlike Facebook Events or Meetup
Backed by non-profits with a track record of maintaining fediverse tools like PeerTube
Can be self-hosted for full control, or used on existing community-run instances for free
Cons
Smaller user base than Facebook Events or Meetup limits organic event discovery
Federation across instances can be confusing for users new to the fediverse model
Fewer built-in ticketing and payment features than commercial platforms like Eventbrite
Self-hosting requires server administration skills and ongoing maintenance
Mobile app support and polish lag behind mainstream commercial competitors