Friendica

What it's good for#

Friendica suits people who want somewhere to share more than a quick thought: a proper post with pictures, a photo album from a holiday, an event people can say they're coming to, or a group for a club or a family. Posts can go to everyone or only to the contacts you choose.

Because it speaks the fediverse's common language, people on Mastodon and other servers can follow you, and you can follow them, without anyone signing up to your server. It can also follow ordinary RSS feeds, so a blog or news site can sit in your timeline next to your friends.

Before you install: its address is for keeps#

Friendica takes the address it's installed on as its identity on the fediverse, and builds every link from it. Its developers don't support changing it afterwards.

• If you have a domain set up, with Traefik running, Friendica takes friends.<your domain> over HTTPS. This is the only kind of address other servers can follow.
• If you don't, it uses your server's address and port on your network, like http://192.168.1.50:<port>. That works fine for a household or a group on the LibrePortal VPN, but it can never federate, and moving it to a domain later means starting again.

So if there's any chance you'll want the fediverse, set up the domain and Traefik first.

The install also asks for an Admin email. Use a real address of yours: LibrePortal makes the admin account with it. Friendica checks that the address looks real, so a made-up one like admin@example.test can be refused.

Signing in#

Friendica has no built-in admin user. Its administrator is whichever account is registered with the admin email, and left to itself it would let the first person to register with that address take the role. So LibrePortal registers the account itself while installing, and keeps Friendica reachable from the server only until it has checked the new login works (why). Nobody else gets the chance.

The account's nickname is admin, on the admin email you gave. Its password is in the Login Details shown when the install finishes; press Welcome on the app's page to see them again. Sign in with the nickname or the email. Change the password in Friendica's own settings if you like, but LibrePortal's copy won't follow, so note the new one yourself.

If you left the admin email empty, Friendica installs with no administrator at all. Set Admin Email on the Config tab and restart, and LibrePortal makes the account then. The same setting moves the admin role later: change it and restart, and the role goes to the account with the new address.

Installs made before 0.4.7 left the admin account to whoever registered first. If nobody has registered the admin email on such an install yet, LibrePortal makes the account the next time Friendica starts after the update, and its password appears in the Login Details. If someone has, it's left alone, so check under Admin → Users that the admin account is yours.

First steps#

Once you're signed in as the admin, go to Admin → Site and decide who may sign up. Friendica can be open, require your approval for each new account, or be closed. For a family or a club, approval or closed is usually right. Whoever signs up gets an ordinary account; the admin role stays with the admin email. To check: confirm Friendica 2026.05's registration setting on a fresh LibrePortal install (open, approval or closed); the compose doesn't set it That's also where you change the site's name and default language, which LibrePortal only sets at install.

Then make it yours: fill in your profile, and find people. You can follow anyone on the fediverse by pasting their address, like @someone@mastodon.example.com, into Friendica's search or contact page.

On your phone#

Friendica's web pages work on a phone browser. It also understands the same app interface as Mastodon, so many Mastodon apps can sign in to it, as can apps written for Friendica. Point the app at Friendica's address exactly as you open it in the browser.

Works with#

Friendica can follow and be followed by the other fediverse apps LibrePortal runs: Mastodon, Funkwhale channels, WriteFreely blogs and Owncast streams, as well as anyone else on the fediverse. The Works with list on its page shows whether each pair can reach each other, with a Check button and Follow links that open Friendica's own follow page. LibrePortal never follows or posts anything for you. See Apps that work together.

Following between servers needs a domain on both sides. Without one there's a smaller fallback: Friendica can follow another app's RSS feed as a contact, even one on your own network with a self-signed certificate.

Who can reach it#

Friendica's port starts public, because federation is other servers reaching yours. If you only want it for your household, make the port private and use the VPN when you're out. It will simply stop federating.

Mail#

Friendica runs without mail: accounts, posts and federation all work, and nothing is sent. To have it send registration emails and notifications, fill in the mail settings on its Config tab: Mail Server, Mail Server Port, Sender Domain, Sender Name, Mail Username and Mail Password. Use 587 for a server that upgrades to TLS after connecting, or 465 for one that's TLS from the start. If you run Stalwart, give Friendica its own mailbox there.

Good to know#

• The first start takes a few minutes. Friendica copies itself into place and builds its database before it answers. LibrePortal waits up to five minutes; if it's still going, it'll get there, and its progress is in the app's logs.
• Updates are automatic within one release. LibrePortal follows Friendica 2026.05, which upstream rebuilds with fixes. Moving to the next release is a deliberate step, because Friendica updates its database as it goes and won't run an older version over newer data.
• It's several parts. The website, a background worker that delivers posts to other servers and fetches theirs, a MariaDB database and a Redis cache. If the site loads but nothing arrives from elsewhere, the worker is the one to look at.
• Photos are stored as files, not in the database, so backups stay quick. Backups include the database, the uploads and Friendica's own config.
• One per server. Each Friendica is an identity on the fediverse, so it doesn't run as several copies.