Replaces Instagram
European alternatives to Instagram
Photo and video sharing outside the US platforms
Browse the category: Photo and video sharing social networks · Microblogging services
Instagram is the photo and video social network owned by Meta. People post pictures, short videos and stories, follow accounts and discover material through an algorithmic feed, and businesses and creators use it as a shopfront with advertising, shopping features and direct messages behind it. Its focus on visual posts is what sets it apart from the other Meta networks.
The feed is ordered by a system you cannot see, the audience you build belongs to the platform, and the profiling behind the advertising has kept European regulators busy for years. A European alternative to Instagram gives you a different arrangement. Pixelfed is a photo sharing network in the fediverse, so your account can be followed from other services, Mastodon covers short posts and images in the same federated network, and BeReal takes a deliberately simple daily posting format.
European options
| service | Country | Hosting | Open source | Free plan | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 mssgs |
 Netherlands |
EU hosted | — | ✓ | EU controlled |
 Pixelfed |
 Open source |
✓ | ✓ | ||
 Mastodon |
Open source |
✓ | — |
mssgs
Group chat for teams and communities from the Netherlands
mssgs is a group chat app for friends, communities and teams, developed in the Netherlands. It is organised into servers with channels, alongside direct messages and voice calls. Built-in mini-games, custom bots, webhooks and support for MCP and AI agents extend what a server can do, and there are apps for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux and the web.
NetherlandsEU hostedFree planEU controlled
Pixelfed
Open source federated photo sharing network
Open sourceOpen sourceFree plan
Mastodon
Open source federated microblogging network
Open sourceOpen source♻Services without verified European control
Kept here for transparency, but excluded from the European options and totals. How we classify services →
FranceQuestions
Can I take my photos and followers with me?
Instagram offers a full data export of your posts, and that archive is yours to upload elsewhere. Followers do not transfer, so most people announce the move on both accounts for a while.
What does federated mean here?
Pixelfed and Mastodon are part of the fediverse, a set of servers that talk to each other, so someone on one server can follow an account on another. You pick a server, but you are not limited to the people on it.
Which European alternative is closest to Instagram?
Pixelfed is the closest in form, since it is built around photo posts and a visual feed. BeReal is a different proposition altogether, focused on one unedited post a day.