Bluesky

Bluesky runs on the AT Protocol, an open standard for social networking that no single company controls. You can post text (up to 300 characters), images, and video (up to 25 clips or 10 GB per day). Over 40 million people have signed up since the platform opened to everyone in 2024.

The biggest difference from X or Threads: you choose your own algorithm. Bluesky has a marketplace of feeds built by other users and developers. Don't like what you're seeing? Switch to a different feed or build one yourself. Moderation works the same way. Community-created label systems let you filter content based on rules from people you actually trust, not just whatever the platform decided for you.

Verification is simple: set your own domain name as your handle. Own example.com? That becomes your identity. No checkmarks, no fees. The whole thing is open source, protocol and apps included, so anyone can build clients or services on top of it.

The platform is free. A paid tier called Bluesky+ is coming for things like profile customizations and higher quality video, but the core experience will stay free. Paying will not boost your posts in anyone's feed.

Worth knowing

Bluesky is a US company (Seattle-based Bluesky Social PBC). It registered in Belgium for EU regulatory compliance and has a data protection representative in Ireland. But the servers run on US infrastructure, so your data lives in the United States. Everything you post on the AT Protocol is public by default and gets federated across the network. There are no encrypted direct messages. If storing your data inside the EU matters to you, that is a genuine limitation for now.