Bonfire introduces customizable open-source platform for decentralized social communities

Bonfire Social, unveiled during the FediForum conference, is a new open-source platform aimed at enabling users to create and manage their own social communities, free from the influence of major tech companies like Meta or Google. Built on the ActivityPub protocol—also used by Mastodon—Bonfire is modular and fully customizable, giving communities control over the app’s features, interface, and development roadmap. Operated as a nonprofit and funded through grants and donations, Bonfire is not influenced by venture capital.

The platform introduces the concept of ‘flavors’—predefined sets of extensions and configurations that communities can modify. Features include support for multiple user profiles, nested threads, custom feeds, access control tools, and visual customization options like themes, fonts, and layouts. Bonfire also supports features reminiscent of Google+ Circles and introduces ‘Boundaries’ for granular content visibility and interaction control.

Compatible with other federated platforms like Mastodon, PeerTube, and Mobilizon, Bonfire encourages autonomy and user governance in digital social spaces. A demo instance is available, with broader hosting options in development. With its open-source foundation and strong customization tools, Bonfire offers an alternative vision for social networking focused on user control, privacy, and community collaboration.