Alternatives to Facebook: Are There Any?

Since recently Facebook became a part of Meta platform, plenty of people started thinking about about possible alternatives to Facebook. Let’s see if we can really find some decent alternative social media to this one.

Ever since it popped out a decade ago, Facebook has been a ubiquitous part of our lives. Nearly everyone you know is on Facebook, or at least used to be.However, there’s an increasing movement of people who are ditching Facebook and turning to alternative social media platforms. There are plenty of reasons for this. A lot of users are fed up with the constant stream of toxicity and advertisements. Others don’t want their personal data to be used by Facebook and now the whole Meta company to make money. Some prefer not to use a platform that allows misinformation and abuse to spread.

That said, it’s impossible to ditch social media and all the apps like Facebook entirely. It’s just too valuable for keeping in touch with other people. If you leave all social media, you will miss out on a lot of networking opportunities and fun events.

Nevertheless, users know that the dominating product is not necessarily the best one – just like Google. We are used to use it but it’s a great idea to learn about alternative search engines that are just as good or even better.

Nobody trusts Facebook anymore. So, what about using alternatives to Facebook? Let’s check them out today!

1. Twitter – short-messaged alternative to Facebook

The best alternative to Facebook should be obvious. Twitter has been around for just as long. It is one of the biggest social media platforms after Facebook, with over 300 million monthly users. It may be a tiny number compared to apps like Facebook, but Twitter has some unique advantages and disadvantages.

Most content is in the form of ‘Tweets’, which are only 280 characters long. It is basically designed around quick posts that keep things short and sweet. People don’t spend time talking about useless things – they have to say what they want to quickly. This makes Twitter a great Facebook replacement and a place to stay up to date with the latest trends and hot news. For personal conversations you can use messengers, let’s say some of WhatsApp alternatives of your choice.

Plus, you can easily share multiple images or a video in a tweet. A lot of artists and content creators use Twitter as their main platform due to Twitter’s promotion algorithm.

The short tweet length does make it hard to write long posts, but for some people not getting dragged into a long debate on this alternative to Facebook is probably a plus.

Although Twitter is one of those old social media sites, it still has a thriving community. It might not be as widely used around as Facebook, but chances are almost all of your friends are either already on it or know about it.

Pros	Cons
Huge community with most people already aware of it Keep up to date with the latest news and posts Short posts make it a fast-paced atmosphere	Short posts make it hard to talk about things in detail It can be too fast-paced for your older relatives

2. Weibo – Chinese based alternative to Facebook

Weibo is the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, thus another social media alternative to Facebook. If you don’t speak Chinese or are not interested in using translators, you should probably skip this and move on to the next one. But if you know the language, then it is one of the best alternatives to Facebook that should be on.

For starters, Weibo actually has over 500 million active users, making it bigger social alternative than Twitter. A lot of the features are pretty similar across the platforms, though Weibo appears to have a bigger focus on images and videos in posts. This Facebook like service also has a dedicated section to discuss and share news about sports and other games. You can access this social media in any web browser of your choice.

If the language barrier is not a problem, you may find that Weibo has a bigger and broader userbase than Twitter, or even any other alternative to Facebook except Facebook itself.

Pros	Cons
Biggest social network after Facebook Dedicated section for sports and gaming Multi-media focused alternative to Facebook	Impossible to use unless you are good at Chinese Posts tend to be too short for long discussions

3. Reddit – anonymous alternative to Facebook

Reddit was not really considered an alternative social media until recently. For most of its lifetime, it has been mostly a kind of forum – or rather, a platform for people to create forums of their own, called ‘subreddits’. However, newly added features bring it closer to the idea of a social network and make it a great alternative to Facebook, too.

Messaging and posting features have always existed. However, users can now create personal walls or subreddits where they can share their own posts. They can also share multimedia posts in different places, plus message other people and go ‘live’ with video streams. Make sure to always follow online safety tips though!

Although this Facebook replacement does not have all the features you might want from an alternative social media, it’s a great place for in-depth discussion on the latest news, while also having features to stay connected with friends.

Pros	Cons
Lots of different specialized communities You can write detailed posts with multimedia Lots of new people to interact with	Alternative to Facebook that lacks some typical social media features Focused on a forum-style view rather than individual posts You will be interacting with strangers mostly rather than friends or family

4. Ello – alternative to Facebook targeted at artists

Ello calls itself ‘The Creator’s Network’. True to that, it is a place for mainly content creators to meet and hang out, socialize and network.

Ello was originally launched in 2014 as a dedicated social media alternative to Facebook. That means it promised to avoid advertising or selling data. Currently, it is targeted towards artists. The main page of Ello shows posts and images from artists all over the world in a constant stream. Make sure to clear browser cache in order to load the media content faster.

While Ello might not be the best alternative to Facebook for general users, it is definitely a site you want to be on if you are an artist or a graphic designer yourself.

Pros	Cons
Excellent place for artists to showcase and share Fast-growing community Preserves anonymity and has no advertising which is so much better than Facebook	The community social media alternative to Facebook is still on the smaller side Features like text and video posts are missing and unlikely to be added

5. Vero – paid and ads-free alternative to Facebook

Vero launched in 2015 was setting itself up as the best alternative to Facebook. Out of all the sites we’ve recommended, Vero probably has the most feature parity with Facebook.

Vero includes a timeline where you can make posts with text, images, or videos. It keeps your timeline in a neat, chronological order rather than falling over itself trying to predict what you will like seeing the most.

Like Ello, this alternative to Facebook is fully ad-free. It focuses on helping users build a tight-knit network consisting of friends and family. It does not show you everyone’s posts like old social media sites like Facebook do – only those who are closest to you and are approved.

Vero does have some downsides, such as requiring a small payment to make an account. This requirement is currently disabled, but it could be added again in the future. There is no web version either. You must download a desktop or mobile app.

Pros	Cons
Alternative to Facebook with no adverts No recommendation based on algorithm. All posts are in chronological order Tight content moderation	Small userbase limited by having to pay for registration normally No web version. App download required

As you may see, there is quite a number of alternatives to Facebook that are way better than it. They might be more thematically specialized, ad-free, or have better algorithms but if you are searching for a social alternative to Facebook you will definitely find it.