🧮 Decentralization Scoring System (v1.2)

This scoring system evaluates how decentralized and self-hostable a platform is, based on four core metrics.

📊 Scoring Metrics (Total: 100 Points)

Metric Weight Description
Top Provider User Share 30 Measures how many users are on the largest instance. Full points if <10%; 0 if >80%.
Top Provider Content Share 30 Measures how much content is hosted by the largest instance. Full points if <10%; 0 if >80%.
Ease of Self-Hosting: Server 20 Technical ease of running your own backend. Full points for Docker/simple setup with good docs.
Ease of Self-Hosting: User Interface 20 Availability and usability of clients. Full points for accessible, FOSS, multi-platform clients.

📋 Example Breakdown (Estimates)

Platform Score Visualization
📧 Email 88 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🐹 Lemmy 60 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🐘 Mastodon 55 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟣 PeerTube 68 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🖼 Pixelfed 63 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🔵 Bluesky 14 🟥🟥🟥
🟥 Reddit 3 🟥

📧 Email

  • Top Provider User Share: Google ≈ 17% → Score: 27/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Google likely handles ≈ 17% of mail → Score: 27/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Easy (Can leverage hundreds email hosting services) → Score: 16/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Easy (Thunderbird, K-9, etc.) → Score: 18/20

Total: 88/100

🐹 Lemmy

  • Top Provider User Share: lemmy.world ≈ 37.17% → Score: 12/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: lemmy.world likely hosts ~37% content → Score: 12/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Easy (Docker, low resource) → Score: 18/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Good FOSS apps, web UI → Score: 18/20

Total: 60/100

🐘 Mastodon

  • Top Provider User Share: mastodon.social ≈ 42.7% → Score: 11/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: mastodon.social ≈ 45–50% content → Score: 10/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Docker setup, moderate difficulty → Score: 15/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Strong ecosystem (Tusky, web, etc.) → Score: 19/20

Total: 55/100

🟣 PeerTube

  • Top Provider User Share: Framatube (~17%) → Score: 27/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Estimated around 20% → Score: 25/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Docker, active community, moderate resources → Score: 16/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Web-first UI, FOSS, some mobile options → Score: 18/20

Total: 68/100

🖼 Pixelfed

  • Top Provider User Share: pixelfed.social ≈ 23% → Score: 24/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Estimated around 30% → Score: 21/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Laravel-based, Docker available, some config needed → Score: 15/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Web UI, FOSS, mobile apps in progress → Score: 18/20

Total: 63/100

🔵 Bluesky

  • Top Provider User Share: bsky.social ≈ ~90%+ (very centralized) → Score: 0/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Nearly all content on bsky.social → Score: 0/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: PDS hosting possible but very niche → Score: 4/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Mostly official client; some 3rd party → Score: 10/20

Total: 14/100

🟠 Reddit

  • Top Provider User Share: Reddit hosts all user accounts = 100% → Score: 0/30
  • Top Provider Content Share: Reddit hosts all user-generated content → Score: 0/30
  • Self-Hosting: Server: Not self-hostable (proprietary platform) → Score: 0/20
  • Self-Hosting: Client: Some unofficial clients available → Score: 3/20

Total: 3/100

How Scores are Calculated

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 How User/Content Share Scores Work

This measures how many users are on the largest provider (or instance).

  • 100% (one provider): If one provider has all the users, it gets 0 points.
  • No provider > 10%: If no provider has more than 10%, it gets full 30 points.
  • Between 10% and 80%: Anything in between is scored on a linear scale.
  • > 80%: If a provider has more than 80%, it gets 0 points.

📊 Formula:

Score = 30 × (1 - (TopProviderShare - 10) / 70)
…but only if TopProviderShare is between 10% and 80%.
If below 10%, full 30. If above 80%, zero.

📌 Example:

If one provider has 40% of all users:
→ Score = 30 × (1 - (40 - 10) / 70) = 30 × (1 - 0.43) = 17.1 points

🖥️ How Ease of Self-Hosting Scores Work

These scores measure how easy it is for individuals or communities to run their own servers or use clients.

This looks at how technically easy it is to run your own backend (e.g., email server, Mastodon server) or User Interface (e.g., web-interface or mobile-app)

  • Very Easy: One-command, low resources, great documentation → 18–20 points
  • Moderate: Docker or manual setup, some config, active community support → 13–17 points
  • Hard: Complex setup, needs regular updates or custom config (e.g. DNS, spam) → 6–12 points
  • Very Hard or Proprietary: Little to no self-hosting support, undocumented → 0–5 points

📚 Sources

//TODO This is very much still a work in progress, so it likely still contains mistakes and the example data isn’t yet retreived from reliable sources. I’m working on that. If you want to help provide sources please do.

This is saved on GitHub, https://github.com/NoBadDays/decentralization-score/blob/main/decentralization_score_2025.04.md

If you have ideas or thoughts on how this can be improved, let me know