How to get your startup found on Mastodon
TL;DR
Mastodon is a free, open-source social network made of thousands of independent servers that talk to each other. A startup joins one server, builds a profile and gets found through hashtags, follows and reposts, with no ads and no paid reach. It suits developer tools, privacy products, open-source projects and founders who write for a tech and academic crowd.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon works like a microblog: short posts, replies, favourites and reposts. There is no single Mastodon website. Each server (also called an instance) has its own owners, members and rules, and all of them connect through a shared protocol called ActivityPub, part of the wider network known as the fediverse. Someone on one server can follow and reply to someone on any other.
mastodon.social is one server among thousands, run by the team behind the Mastodon software. It is the largest, with about 269,000 monthly active users in October 2026 according to its own server data. Across the whole network, TechCrunch put monthly active users at 750,000 to 1 million in February 2026.
The domain authority of 82 shown here belongs to the server domain. Mastodon's code adds rel="nofollow" to links in posts, so a Mastodon profile brings readers and conversations, and the search value stays with your own site.
Who should post on Mastodon?
Good fit:
- Developer tools, open-source projects and privacy-first products, whose buyers gather here.
- Founders who share build logs, technical write-ups or research.
Skip it:
- If you need paid ads or targeting: Mastodon has neither.
- If your audience is mainstream consumers. The network is small next to Instagram or TikTok.
How much does Mastodon cost?
- Joining a server and posting: free. There are no ads and no paid promotion.
- Server admins pay for hosting themselves, and some ask members for donations.
- You can also run your own server for your company domain, which means paying for hosting or a managed Mastodon host.
How do you share your startup on Mastodon?
- Choose a server on joinmastodon.org/servers. You can filter by language, region and topic, and every server listed there has signed the Mastodon Server Covenant, a commitment to active moderation. Read its rules first; some servers ban commercial accounts.
- Sign up, then fill in your bio and up to four profile fields with a label and value, such as your website.
- Verify your website link. Add a link back to your Mastodon profile with rel="me" in your site's HTML, then save your profile: Mastodon shows a check mark next to the verified link (profile docs).
- Tick the bot flag if a tool posts for you automatically.
- Post an introduction with the #introduction hashtag and topic hashtags such as #OpenSource or #BuildInPublic. Hashtags are the main way people find posts, since full-text search depends on what each server's admin turns on (search docs).
Tips to get more out of Mastodon
- Write in CamelCase hashtags (#BuildInPublic) so screen readers read them correctly.
- Add alt text to every image so blind and low-vision users can follow your posts.
- Reply and join threads instead of only posting links. The home feed is chronological, with no algorithm that pushes your posts to strangers.
- Link your profile from your website and newsletter so existing fans can follow you from any server.
Our verdict
Mastodon is free, ad-free and home to a loyal audience of developers, researchers and privacy advocates. Pick a server whose rules welcome your startup, post like a person, and treat it as a community channel next to your own site.
More options: see all founder communities. Planning the launch around this listing? The Fe/male Switch startup game walks women founders from idea to first customers.