Facebook has been the dominant social media platform for over a decade. However, growing concerns about data privacy, algorithm changes, and censorship have led many users to seek alternative social media platforms. While Facebook remains a popular choice, many other platforms offer unique features, better data protection, and a more user-friendly experience.
If you’re searching for the best alternatives to Facebook, then you’re not alone in this search.
Many people(users and businesses alike) are questioning Facebook’s privacy and data security. Because of this, many people are now looking for Facebook alternatives where their privacy is respected and private information is never shared or sold to other corporations or organizations, especially considering the current Facebook CA controversy.
These privacy issues, coupled with ad overload and diminishing organic reach, have driven businesses and users to explore alternative platforms that prioritize transparency, user engagement, and security.
In this article, we’ll delve into the top 10 Facebook alternatives, highlighting platforms catering to diverse needs. Some of these Facebook competitors provide fewer advertisements, better data security, and even additional functions and capabilities not currently available to Facebook users.
Does Facebook have a Competitor?
Yes, Facebook does not just have a competitor, but competitors.
#1. Pinterest
Pinterest is Facebook’s most significant competitor, ranking second in terms of visits in the United States with about 30%.
Pinterest received a user satisfaction rating of 73 out of a possible 100 points, as of July 2023 an increment from 71 points in 2022. This means that Pinterest ranks above LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook in terms of user approval.
Additionally, Pinterest demonstrated impressive growth in users, expanding its user base by 7.5% from 2022 to 2023, outpacing Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram in this regard.
Pinterest was developed in December 2009 but launched in March 2010, is a platform for discovering visual ideas and is the world’s fastest-growing social network.
Although started as a “social network” with boards, in later years, the company has put increasing emphasis on visual search and e-commerce, such as shopping catalogs
In January 2023 at CES, Pinterest announced its partnership with LiveRamp, a data enablement platform to create data ‘clean rooms’ for selected advertisers on the platform. These ‘clean rooms’ allow Pinterest’s ad partners to utilize first-party data for personalized ads without having to share the data with Pinterest. With data privacy a large concern for online platforms and their users, this partnership aims to stimulate ad business while keeping user data safe and compliant with new data collection regulations.
In April 2023, Pinterest reported 463 million monthly active users, which suggests that 7.4% of the world’s population over age 13 use Pinterest.
#2. Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is one of the world’s largest social media platforms and most-visited websites. Founded in March, 2006. Users can share short text messages, images, and videos in short posts commonly known as “tweets” (officially “posts”) and like other users’ content. The platform includes direct messaging, video and audio calls, bookmarks, lists, communities, job search, and Spaces, a social audio feature.
News stories nearly typically break first on Twitter, then on social media platforms. Due to the large number of media professionals that use the service, users of this social network have the unusual opportunity to connect directly with editors and journalists.
Twitter may not be ideal for keeping up with family members, but it is unrivaled when it comes to keeping up with the latest news.
#3. Reddit
Founded in 2005, Reddit is a social news aggregation, content rating, and forum social network. Registered users (commonly referred to as “Redditors”) submit content to the site, such as links, text posts, images, and videos, which are then voted up or down (“upvoted” or “downvoted”) by other members.
As of December 2024, Reddit is the 8th most-visited website in the world. According to data, 51.75% of the website traffic comes from the United States, followed by Canada at 7.01%, the United Kingdom at 6.97%, Australia at 3.97%, Germany at 3%, and the remaining 28.37% split among other world countries.
#4. Telegram
Telegram Messenger, commonly known as Telegram, is a cloud-based, cross-platform social media and instant messaging (IM) service. It was originally launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android on 20 October 2013.
Telegram also has social networking features, allowing users to post stories, create large public groups with up to 200,000 members, or share one-way updates to unlimited audiences in so-called channels.
As of 2024, registration to Telegram required either a smartphone or one of a limited number of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) issued in December 2022. Also, Telegram recorded 950 million monthly active users, with India as the country with the most users in July, 2024.
#5. Instagram
Switching to Instagram full-time isn’t a bad idea if you’re getting rid of Facebook as part of a goal to limit the number of apps on your phone or the number of websites you visit every day.
Most of your Facebook pals are almost certainly already there. Many will already use Instagram to share photos of their families and other life events.
The nicest aspect is that most Instagram users refrain from discussing politics, world events, or religion. It’s all good.
But if you’re leaving Facebook because you’re worried about your privacy and personal information, Instagram isn’t for you. It’s now inextricably linked to Facebook, so any issues you had with data collecting on Facebook will also apply to Instagram.
#6. LinkedIn
You’ve probably heard of LinkedIn as a trustworthy platform for job seekers and recruiters. While LinkedIn isn’t a great replacement for Facebook for family gossip, it is a good place to start.
With a fresh focus on its activity feed, the addition of multimedia postings, and even stories, it’s also matured into a solid social network in recent years.
It’s a fantastic social media platform for anyone interested in posting and reading about businesses, finance, real estate, and other business-related topics. It’s also a great alternative for people who use Facebook Marketplace to find or post job openings.
Because the entire social network is focused on the job application and employee-finding process, LinkedIn surpasses Facebook in this area.
#7. Minds
Minds is one of the largest networks in decentralized social media and has generated over a billion views. We believe freedom of speech and open dialogue are the solution to these polarized times.
Founded in 2011 but launched to the public in June 2015, Mind was created as an alternative to social media networks such as Facebook
Minds is an open-source, privacy-focused, community-moderated Facebook alternative that is reported to have more than 2.5 million registered users and 300,000 monthly active users in 2020.
It also features a decentralized governance system in which randomly selected users can vote on content moderation choices using an Ethereum-based token to reward content providers and manage a digital economy within the network.
In other words, we can say that Minds, a “Crypto Social Network” that went public in 2015, has grown in popularity as a viable alternative to Facebook.
Minds compares favorably to Facebook in terms of features.
You may create groups, send messages, post, comment, and browse a chronological newsfeed, among other things. New users will find the UI easy to navigate, particularly if they come from Facebook.
Minds is built on the principles of privacy, openness, liberty, and democratization.
#8. Vero
The app Vero was launched officially in 2015 as an alternative to Facebook and its popular photo-blogging app, Instagram.
Vero is an ad-free and algorithm-free social network.
However, within weeks of its release, the app surged in popularity.
Vero’s chronological timeline, which displays your feed’s postings in order of when they were published, is one of the most appealing features.
#9. MeWe
MeWe is a social network program with less control. It promotes itself as a secure and private alternative to Facebook and has garnered 2.5 million new users as of 2021 according to the company.
It includes many of the same features as Facebook, such as groups, private conversations, tagging, content permissions, and even a few extras like cloud storage and personalized profiles for different groups.
However, the extra cloud storage, encrypted chat, live voice and video calls, pages, dark mode, and other features need a monthly charge.
Because MeWe is ad-free and does not track or sell your data, this is primarily how it makes money.
In 2022, MeWe announced it would migrate its platform over time to a blockchain-based system, becoming the first major social network to migrate its tech over to the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), which will make it the largest decentralized social media platform
#10. Mastodon
Mastodon wins a slot among the top Facebook alternatives because of its large audience, excellent decentralization, user-friendly design, and community moderation processes while being most comparable to Twitter in terms of feel and functionality.
Even though Mastodon was only introduced in 2017, it has quickly established itself as one of the best Facebook alternatives. All thanks to the community’s relatively healthy population, strong devolution, user-friendly interface, and community management structure!
It’s part of the “Fediverse,” a wider umbrella of services that works on an open-source software standard that allows anyone to host computers and manage their data.
Mastodon has no ads, the feed is chronological and unsorted, and the system does not track your activity. Unless you wish to set up your instance, you must still have faith in the person hosting your data.
#11. Diaspora
Diaspora is one of the first Facebook alternatives (it launched in 2010), and it’s open-source and free to use and host as part of the fediverse.
It is a non-profit, decentralized social network that runs on Diaspora software, which is available for free. The application is in the form of a free web server that may be used at home.
Users can select a “pod” to keep their account data and create an account. They can interact with any other network user, independent of the host location, once their data is on that server.
Meanwhile, it has similar privacy requirements to Mastodon in that there is no advertising, monitoring, or data-selling, but you must still trust the owner of your pod to some extent. If you want complete control, you may always host it on your server.
Steps to Choosing the Right Social Media Platform
Here are the steps to choosing the right social media platform:
Step 1: Define Your Goals
- Identify your target audience and their preferred social media platforms.
- Determine your social media marketing goals (e.g., increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive website traffic).
- Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success.
Step 2: Research Popular Social Media Platforms
- Familiarize yourself with popular social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube).
- Analyze each platform’s features, audience demographics, and content styles.
- Note the platform’s advertising options and costs.
Step 3: Evaluate Platform-Specific Features
- Consider the platform’s content formats (e.g., images, videos, live streaming).
- Look at the platform’s engagement features (e.g., comments, likes, shares).
- Evaluate the platform’s analytics and reporting tools.
Step 4: Assess Your Resources
- Determine your social media marketing budget.
- Evaluate your team’s social media expertise and resources.
- Consider the time commitment required for each platform.
Step 5: Choose the Right Platform(s)
- Select the platform(s) that best align with your goals, target audience, and resources.
- Consider starting with one or two platforms and expanding later.
- Develop a content strategy tailored to each chosen platform.
Step 6: Monitor and Adjust
- Track your performance on each platform using analytics tools.
- Adjust your content strategy based on your KPIs and audience engagement.
- Monitor industry trends and platform updates to optimize your social media presence.
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