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Friendica vs Rspamd

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Friendica and Rspamd — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Friendica vs Rspamd: at a glance

FeatureFriendicaRspamd
SectorCommsComms
Velocity score0.05.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesfediverse, activitypub, bluesky-bridge, self-hostedspam filtering, email authentication, input hardening, attachment extraction
Last editorial update3mo ago3h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Friendica?

Friendica keeps betting on being the fediverse node that speaks everyone else's protocols.

Friendica is a self-hosted decentralised social platform, released on calendar versions two or three times a year with codenames and a consistent structure: a handful of highlights, a security-fix credit, and a pointer to the changelog. The recent run — 2023.12, 2024.03, 2024.08, 2024.12, 2026.01, 2026.05 — shows the cadence thinning, with a full year between 2024.12 and 2026.01. Nearly every release credits externally reported security issues, most recently from Doyensec working with Mastodon.

Read the full Friendica trajectory →

What is Rspamd?

Rspamd 4.3 fixes SPF evaluation order and rejects weak DKIM keys, with results that change.

Rspamd 4.3.0 on November 13 is a correctness release with a long incompatible-changes list. SPF records are now evaluated in term order, closing a case where an explicit -ip4 deny could be overridden by a broader allow. DKIM rejects RSA keys under 1024 bits and signatures with duplicate tags, DMARC no longer drops a policy over an unknown tag, URL mismatches are scored apart from phishing, and PDF text extraction and archive unpacking change their output. Critical fixes cover a header line that could abort a worker from one unauthenticated HTTP request.

Read the full Rspamd trajectory →

Friendica vs Rspamd: editorial side-by-side

F0.0

Friendica keeps betting on being the fediverse node that speaks everyone else's protocols.

◆ Current state

Friendica is a self-hosted decentralised social platform, released on calendar versions two or three times a year with codenames and a consistent structure: a handful of highlights, a security-fix credit, and a pointer to the changelog. The recent run — 2023.12, 2024.03, 2024.08, 2024.12, 2026.01, 2026.05 — shows the cadence thinning, with a full year between 2024.12 and 2026.01. Nearly every release credits externally reported security issues, most recently from Doyensec working with Mastodon.

◆ Where it's heading

Two lines of work dominate. The first is connectors: an initial Bluesky bridge in 2023.05 made bi-directional by 2023.12, Tumblr support maintained throughout, and ATproto account integration plus Bridgy Fed support improved in 2026.05. The second is Channels — the user-defined algorithm for sorting the network stream — introduced in 2023.12 and given performance and sorting work in every release since. Running against both is a deliberate pruning of legacy: OStatus dropped in 2024.12 after the project measured how few servers still needed it, and the fancybox addon deprecated alongside it.

◆ Prediction

Expect the next release to continue the ATproto and Bridgy Fed integration work and further Channels performance tuning, with the accessibility review started in 2026.01 producing more fixes. Given the year-long gap before 2026.01, the cadence itself is the uncertain part.

R
Rspamd
COMMS
5.0

Rspamd 4.3 fixes SPF evaluation order and rejects weak DKIM keys, with results that change.

◆ Current state

Rspamd 4.3.0 on November 13 is a correctness release with a long incompatible-changes list. SPF records are now evaluated in term order, closing a case where an explicit -ip4 deny could be overridden by a broader allow. DKIM rejects RSA keys under 1024 bits and signatures with duplicate tags, DMARC no longer drops a policy over an unknown tag, URL mismatches are scored apart from phishing, and PDF text extraction and archive unpacking change their output. Critical fixes cover a header line that could abort a worker from one unauthenticated HTTP request.

◆ Where it's heading

Since 4.1, every release has hardened parsers and closed memory-safety and trust gaps; 4.3 applies the same pass to the authentication standards themselves (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, ARC) and to content extraction. Operators should expect scores and fuzzy hashes to shift after upgrading, because the project now favours spec-correct results over backward-compatible ones.

◆ Prediction

A 4.3.x point release fixing regressions from these behaviour changes is the likely next step, as 4.2.1 followed 4.2.0 within two weeks.

Alternatives to Friendica and Rspamd

Other Comms products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Friendica or Rspamd.

See all Friendica alternatives → · See all Rspamd alternatives →

Recent activity from Friendica and Rspamd

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 22h agoRspamd4.3.0: SPF order fix, stricter DKIM, new truncation symbols
  2. 24d agoRspamd4.2.3: ARC trust fix, merged RBL queries, browser-style HTML parsing
  3. 1mo agoRspamd4.2.2: crypto wallet detection and changed MIME digests
  4. 1mo agoRspamd4.2.1: critical HTTP and memory-safety fixes
  5. 1mo agoRspamd4.2.0: public suffix lookup and attachment content extraction
  6. 3mo agoRspamdCloses an arbitrary file read reachable by any TCP client
  7. 5mo agoFriendicaFriendica 2026.05 deepens ATproto and Bridgy Fed support
  8. 9mo agoFriendicaFriendica 2026.01 adds sortable channels and admin block-list portability
  9. 1y agoFriendicaFriendica drops OStatus support in 2024.12 ⚡
  10. 2y agoFriendicaFriendica 2024.08 adds Zabbix and Grafana monitoring endpoints
  11. 2y agoFriendicaFriendica 2024.03 adds OCR-generated image descriptions
  12. 2y agoFriendicaFriendica 2023.12 makes the Bluesky bridge two-way and ships Channels ⚡

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Friendica and Rspamd?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Rspamd is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Friendica better than Rspamd?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Rspamd is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Comms products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Friendica?

Top Friendica alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Friendica alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/friendica for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Rspamd?

Top Rspamd alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Rspamd alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rspamd for the full list with editorial commentary on each.