Register No. 057

Is Mastodon European?

Unresolved

Not established. Public sources do not show who ultimately controls Mastodon.

Mastodon is moving from ownership by its founder to a non-profit structure. A European non-profit in Belgium is planned but did not yet exist in mid-2026, and Mastodon said in late 2025 that its US non-profit would hold the trademark and other assets until then. Public sources do not show who now owns the German company, so we list control as unresolved.

Latest

Nothing new on file since the check on 30 October 2026. Seen news about Mastodon? Send it with a source.

Controlled by
Not established
Legal entity
Mastodon GmbH (formerly Mastodon gGmbH)
Company register
German commercial register (Handelsregister), Amtsgericht Charlottenburg · HRB 230086 B
Seat
Berlin, Germany
Founded
2016
Last checked

About Mastodon

Mastodon is free, open-source software for a decentralised social network made of many independently run servers. The Mastodon team in Germany develops the software and runs the flagship servers mastodon.social and mastodon.online. It is funded mainly by donations.

joinmastodon.org

Ownership

Mastodon GmbH in Berlin develops the software and runs mastodon.social and mastodon.online; it was wholly owned by founder Eugen Rochko. In November 2025 a new shareholder list was filed and Rochko said he was handing the trademark and other assets to the Mastodon non-profit, with the US 501(c)(3) Mastodon, Inc. (New York) to hold them until a planned Belgian non-profit (AISBL) is ready. In July 2026 that European holding body was still described as future, and no public source names the GmbH's current shareholder.

Evidence 5

  1. Mastodon About page (impressum, Mastodon, Inc., board)joinmastodon.org ↗
  2. Mastodon blog: The people should own the town square (January 2025)blog.joinmastodon.org ↗
  3. Mastodon blog: The future is ours to build, together (November 2025)blog.joinmastodon.org ↗
  4. Mastodon blog: new terms of service, future EU non-profit holding (July 2026)blog.joinmastodon.org ↗
  5. Mastodon Annual Report 2021 (100 percent owned by Eugen Rochko)joinmastodon.org ↗

Sources were opened and read on the date of the check. Registers and websites change; if one of these no longer says what we cite it for, tell us.

Product

Mastodon

joinmastodon.org ↗

Open source federated microblogging network

Because Mastodon is self-hosted open source software, the project is not necessarily European, and where your data lives depends on the server you join. Many servers are operated and hosted in Europe, some of them on renewable energy, and choosing one of those gives you a European alternative to the American social networks.

Instead of
X (Twitter) and Threads
Pricing
Free. Funded by donations.
Suits
People who want social media without one owner

Free planSelf-hostable