Pixelfed is a decentralized, self-hosted photo sharing platform and social network. It uses the ActivityPub protocol to enable federation, allowing independent server instances to share user profiles, media, and posts across a distributed network.
The platform distinguishes itself with a focus on media portability and processing, featuring tools for importing content from Instagram and utilizing client-side WebGL for image filter processing. It employs a driver-based storage abstraction to manage media across local disks or S3-compatible cloud object storage.
The system includes capabilities for content organization through custom portfolios, trending content discovery, and community moderation tools such as automated spam detection. User identity is managed via role-based access control and support for external identity providers.
Deployment is supported through containerized images and Docker Compose orchestration, with additional distribution support for YunoHost.