If you’re feeling less-than-pleased with Instagram, you’re not alone. Many users are tired of Meta (Instagram’s parent company) selling data, pushing content via the algorithm, and overloading feeds with ads. Meta has also recently ended its fact-checking program and adopted a more lenient policy on hate speech and abuse.
While there are many Instagram alternatives, none are quite like Pixelfed. The platform looks and feels like Instagram, yet it’s decentralized, federated, open-source, safe, and community-focused. What does that mean for you, and can it actually replace Instagram? We’ll discuss it all in this Pixelfed review, plus how to stay safe on all social media with CyberGhost VPN.
What Is Pixelfed?
Pixelfed is a photo and video-sharing platform. Like Instagram, you can follow accounts, like and comment on posts, send direct messages, add filters to content, make carousel posts (called albums on Pixelfed), and add disappearing stories. It has similar safety features, allowing you to mute or block other users, disable comments, approve followers, and report posts.
Though the feed and functionality are similar to Instagram’s, the infrastructure behind the platform is incredibly different. Pixelfed is decentralized, which means its data (including data shared by users) is stored on many independent servers rather than one main server. Different people or organizations manage the servers, so no one person controls Pixelfed.
The platform is also federated, meaning it’s part of a network of sites aiming to provide a better, united experience for users. It utilizes the ActivityPub protocol, which allows Pixelfed users to interact with two other social media platforms: Mastodon and Akkoma. To put this into perspective, this is like having the ability to use your Instagram account to interact with Twitter users.
Additionally, Pixelfed is open-source. That means anyone in the community can view and suggest edits to the code to help improve the platform.
Pixelfed vs. Instagram: What Are the Differences?
Account Creation
One of the biggest differences between the two platforms is the sign-up process. Instagram is fairly straightforward, requiring just your phone number or email, name, username, and password. You can also sign up with your existing Facebook account, making it even faster.
On Pixelfied, you choose a server to join before creating an account. Some servers (also called instances) have a niche, like French-speaking or art-focused, while others are more general and simply meant for socializing.
You can browse the Server Directory to learn more about each server’s niche, what kind of posts to expect, and community guidelines. Each server also has different limitations, which can restrict file types, photo sizes, photos per album, caption limits, and whether you can post videos or not.
Some servers allow you to import content from your Instagram profile to your Pixelfed profile. This option makes it easier to set up your account and try Pixelfed. However, this feature appears somewhat glitchy, as even those servers that offer it sometimes deactivate it.
User Experience
Pixelfed doesn’t have an algorithm, which makes for a very different user experience than Instagram. The platform never pushes content to users, and the lack of an algorithm also helps limit endless doomscrolling.
Without an algorithm, you’re in charge of what you view and browse. You can check out your feed and see posts from accounts you follow. Or, use the Discover page to see trending posts from users you may not follow.
The platform largely depends on tags. You can search for key terms and use tags to help your audience find your posts. While Instagram also has tags, they are not nearly as important as they are on Pixelfed.
Another noticeable difference in user experience is the use of ads. While Instagram constantly promotes products and shopping links to its users, Pixelfed is ad-free. This allows for more community and genuine interaction among users. You can still post links in your profile bio and captions, but there’s much less emphasis on shopping and sales.
Community
You can undoubtedly find users with similar interests and values on Instagram, but you typically find these folks via the algorithmic feed. On Pixelfed, you choose your community when you select a server. Some servers are country-focused while others are interest-focused. Each is its own little community, similar to a Discord group or a subreddit.
Pixelfed gives you instant community during sign up, but it doesn’t limit you to that one group of people. You can still access the global feed to see posts from users on other servers. You also have the option to migrate from one server to another if you change your mind after joining.
Many users report finding it easier to build a community and get post engagement on Pixelfed thanks to the platform’s intentionality. Your carefully chosen tags allow you to find people with similar interests, and you can rest assured that no one found your post because of an algorithm. With no ads, there’s more focus on people rather than things.
App Experience
Pixelfed is accessible via a browser, but there’s also a Pixelfed Android app and a Pixelfed iOS app. For now, the browser option provides a better experience, with faster loading times that match Instagram’s speeds. Unfortunately, many users report issues with the Pixelfed app, especially on iOS. It can sometimes be slow and unresponsive, with long load times on photos.
There are several reasons you might encounter these issues. Most notably, many people are moving to Pixelfed from Instagram, which is bogging down servers. When servers get overcrowded, they slow down, so this might not be a long-term issue. Plus, some servers don’t force users to reduce the resolution or size of images, which can also cause slow load times.
Number of Users
While Pixelfed is growing quickly, it’s hard to match Instagram’s widespread popularity. Pixelfed has 623,000 users spread across 1,500 servers and 136 million photos and videos.
Instagram has two billion monthly active users. While there is no official data on the platform’s number of photos and videos, it’s safe to assume that there are far more than Pixelfed. Still, millions of those posts are sponsored, ad-driven content, meaning they are not necessarily posts that you’ll want to engage with.
Ultimately, there are fewer users on Pixelfed. If you love Instagram for connecting with friends, it might be hard to make the leap. If you like Instagram for inspiration, you may find that the user base on Pixelfed is more than enough to entertain and engage you.
Why You Need CyberGhost for Social Media
Whether you’re using Instagram, Pixelfed, or another social media platform, CyberGhost’s powerful encryption keeps you safe while you browse, chat, and post. With CyberGhost, your online traffic is hidden from hackers, advertisers, your ISP, and the government. That means your IP address, real location, and identity remain private so you can browse worry-free.
How to Sign Up for Pixelfed
Creating an account on Pixelfed is a little more complicated than Instagram, but it also puts you in control of your experience! Here’s how you can sign up:
- Browse the Server Directory. Find a server that matches your interests, and be sure to check server limitations.
- Create an account. Provide your name, username, email, and password to register your account on your chosen server.
- Get started. Pixelfed will show you a selection of recommended accounts to help you start using the platform. Feel free to follow them or find other accounts to follow.
- Post, browse, and discover! Use the platform like you use Instagram: Post photos, have a look around the Public Feed and Discover page, and interact with other users.
Use the Best VPN for Social Media VPN
Enjoy social media freely with CyberGhost VPN! Our massive global server network includes secure servers in 100 countries, so you can always find one where you need it to unblock social media sites, like Instagram and Pixelfed. It takes just a few taps to connect to a server where your favorite platforms are available, get a new virtual location, and start browsing.
CyberGhost VPN makes it easy to keep up with all the instant updates on social media. Our lightning-fast connection speeds easily handle high-resolution photos and live videos without any annoying buffering. You get unlimited bandwidth with no data caps, meaning you can scroll, post, and stream as much as you want.
You can use social media on all your preferred devices with CyberGhost. We support all major operating systems, including macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS. If you want to protect every device on your home network at once, you can even set up CyberGhost VPN on your router!
One subscription allows you to connect up to seven devices simultaneously, so you can easily watch YouTube on your laptop while scrolling Pixelfed on your phone. Try it for yourself with our 45-day money-back guarantee.
FAQ
Pixelfed is a great alternative to Instagram. It offers many of the same features, including photo and video sharing, stories, carousel posts, content discovery, and user interaction. It doesn’t have an algorithm or ads, making the platform more community and inspiration-focused. Users report getting more engagement there, though it can sometimes be buggy and slow.
Pixelfed has 623,000 users with a total of 136 million photo and video posts. While this is far fewer than Instagram, which has about two billion users, the platform has been quickly gaining popularity in recent months and will likely continue to grow.
Daniel Supernault, also known by username dansup on Pixelfed and other social platforms, is the creator of Pixelfed. Although Daniel remains the main developer of the platform, there are many contributors who help with coding and maintaining servers for the platform.
No. There is one primary developer (Daniel Supernault), but Pixelfed is decentralized and made up of many servers run by many different people and organizations. It’s also open-source, meaning other users can view and suggest edits to the code behind the platform, helping to improve the experience for all users.
Pixelfed is generally secure. It uses two-factor authentication to confirm user identity. You can create unlisted and follower-only posts, manually approve followers, block users, disable comments, limit DMs to only accounts you follow, and report inappropriate accounts or posts. To stay truly private, it’s always best to use VPN encryption while you use social media.
No. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, Pixelfed is totally algorithm-free. The platform instead uses tags to help users find content they’re interested in. There’s also a Discover page where you can see what’s trending within your community.
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