Instagram or Pixelfed?
August 17, 2025 - Reading time: 6 minutes
After using both, which one do I prefer?
Instagram: Probably the world's most popular photo-sharing platform?
When Instagram came on the scene back in late 2010, I was a big user of the platform as an amateur photographer. I didn't boast a huge following, but the community was great to get involved with. It was easy to find like-minded people and to share your photos, get comments, good and bad, share techniques and so on. The community was large, so it was easy to connect with people; you could get your followers up, which meant more exposure, and the likes soon followed. It was a good place to be as a photographer, amateur or professional, and I was a constant uploader of pictures from my phone and my camera; it was, I hate to say it, addictive sometimes.
As time went on, of course, the tone changed on Instagram, and my enthusiasm shifted. I can't quite put my finger on what or how it changed at the time; it just did. It started to feel like another place, comments started to get "funny", which soon turned into "nasty". People would barge in on your feed with comments not related to the content. Then the ads came, then came Meta, and in my view, they destroyed what Instagram set out to do, and Instagram just became a mini Facebook.
Facebook, never and still don't understand it. Why?
I drifted around other platforms like 500px and Flickr. I'd had an account with both for years. I know these things cost money to put up, but I felt the ever-increasing cost was becoming too much for both 500px and Flickr. Yes, I wanted it cheaper or free!
PixelFed, probably the best behaved photo sharing platform?
As an open source junky, I discovered PixelFed. It was in its infancy but looked promising. Very Instagramish in its presentation and use, but it was decentralised, with better privacy controls, and it felt like a 'proper community', just a bunch of people putting up their work and others liking it and or commenting. It was a small community; it was new after all. I was curious about the whole federated idea or PixelFed, multiple private servers all connected, decentralised and so on, a very interesting concept, so I gave it some time and started posting. It was slow and not very... vibrant. Give it time, Del...
Fast forward a few years, and recently I created a new Instagram account, after binning off my account years ago. I hate it... Sorry, but I do. I found it just full of junk and difficult to connect with. Maybe I've got older, maybe I'm not using it right, maybe it's just not for me, the ads, the constant life hacks, the shouting, the constant '...I'm here, look at me...' feel. Maybe I just need re-educating. It's just a loud, noisy place.
At the same time that I recreated my Instagram account, I dipped back into my PixelFed account, and found that it had changed, but it had changed a lot, it was quicker, stable and the community base had grown, so I started by posting some old photos first, just to see how it went, and to my surprise, it felt like a new home. That sounds a bit crass, I know, but it just felt... nice... Lots of people are showing some fantastic work with a phone or a camera, no noise, no shouting, no ads, just people liking and commenting on other people's pictures, with a good helping of privacy control. A bit like... Instagram was back in 2010! It's all about the data...
Today I'm using PixelFed. I like the style, the feel and the community. Sure, you still get the odd bozzo, but that will always happen. I like PixelFed, and it has, for the moment, become my go-to photo-sharing platform. I like the control, the privacy and the true community spirit of the platform. Long may it thrive
Money, money, money....
It's free...! While I have already bemoaned the cost of the likes of 500px, Flickr and others, it's not just the financial cost. It's your data and privacy cost. If you're going to put photos out on the internet, then you are not being very private in the first place, but at least you can control how your data is analysed and distributed. I do contribute some money to open source apps, it might be small, but it's a contribution, something we should all consider doing once in a while. Again, it doesn't have to be much.
A BIG SHOUT OUT!!!!
To the folks who make PixelFed and other good open source software available to us all. Thank you!