Community-owned
The operator keeps control of the source, data, rules and brand instead of building a community on rented reach.
LineWeb-owned product Free and open source
Lineweb Social
Social infrastructure designed around people, not engagement tricks.
A self-hosted foundation for modern communities, creator networks, local platforms and focused social products, with ownership, privacy and safety built into the core.
Delivery benchmark
A 99 target across the essentials
We build toward this benchmark and verify each launch separately. Results can vary by page, device, network and test conditions.
99
Performance
Target
99
Accessibility
Target
99
Best Practices
Target
99
SEO
Target
Direct answer
What is Lineweb Social?
Lineweb Social is an open-source foundation for building a social product without surrendering the community, its data or its rules to someone else’s platform.
The shared core already understands identity, visibility, publishing, relationships, private conversations, notifications, moderation and member safety. A team can focus on what makes its community distinct instead of rebuilding those difficult boundaries from zero.
ChronologicalPrivacy-awareModeratedExtensible
The point of view
A community should not have to fight its own platform.
The product begins with three decisions that influence every screen, permission and interaction.
Calm by default
Chronological feeds, explicit relationships and low-noise notifications replace engagement tricks with understandable choices.
Built to extend
A guarded extension model creates room for focused products without allowing new features to bypass the platform boundaries.
Product capabilities
The difficult social boundaries belong in the core.
Each feature is connected to visibility, authorization and member safety rather than existing as a frontend-only promise.
Communities
Spaces with real boundaries
Public, private and hidden communities with memberships, invitations, roles, ownership transfer and focused moderation.
Publishing
Publishing without pressure
Private drafts, a focused composer and accessible four-image galleries let people shape an update before making it public.
Discovery
Chronological discovery
Home, Following and topic trails stay chronological while search respects the visibility rules of every person, post and Space.
Interaction
Conversations that stay useful
Comments, mentions, typed reactions, saved posts and clear discussion paths support participation without manufacturing urgency.
Messaging
Private direct messages
One-to-one conversations are participant-only, block-aware and honest about the access a self-hosted operator still retains.
Attention
Notifications without leakage
Members can stay in-app or choose a privacy-safe daily digest that shares category counts rather than private content.
Trust
Safety in the product core
Mute, block, reporting, moderation, account restrictions and human-reviewed appeals are enforced by the platform itself.
Privacy
Data rights and clear ownership
Members can export their personal data or request deletion, with safeguards where active community ownership must first move.
Privacy with honest boundaries
Private does not mean making promises the architecture cannot keep.
Direct Messages are limited to their participants and respect blocking. The interface also explains that self-hosted server operators retain normal database access. When a message is reported, the member can submit the exact evidence without opening the surrounding conversation to an administrator.
Clear access rules, visible to the people using them
Platform operations
Community moderation and platform administration stay separate.
Space teams manage their own communities. Trusted platform operators work through a dedicated control center for members, appeals, private safety reports and an append-only audit trail. Restrictions require a reason and appeals remain human-reviewed.
Focused moderation queues
Human-reviewed account appeals
Searchable privileged audit history
The engineering foundation
Open enough to inspect. Guarded enough to extend carefully.
The public source documents the contracts behind authentication, APIs, notifications, Direct Messages, moderation, extensions, media and data rights, so the difficult decisions are visible rather than hidden behind a feature list.
Backend
PHP 8.3+, Laravel 13, Fortify and Sanctum
Interface
React 19, Inertia 3, TypeScript and Tailwind CSS 4
Developer surface
Contract-first bearer API, domain events and an OpenAPI draft
Open source
GPL-3.0-or-later with public contribution and security guidance
Honest release status
A serious alpha, described as an alpha.
The public release is 0.1.0-alpha.1. It is available for local evaluation, architecture discussion and early feedback. It is not presented as a supported production release, and the repository lists the capabilities still outside the supported core.
That boundary matters. Open-source trust is stronger when implemented, tested and future work are clearly separated.
AM
Product ownership
Created by Andrew Matia and LineWeb.
Lineweb Social is original public software, not a reskinned third-party product. It brings together years of work across communities, custom platforms, privacy, business systems and the practical responsibility of maintaining software after the first screen is finished.
Questions and answers
Lineweb Social, clearly explained.
What is Lineweb Social?
Lineweb Social is a self-hosted, open-source foundation for branded communities, creator and professional networks, private organizations and focused social products. It combines the shared social core with clear privacy, moderation and extension boundaries.
Who created Lineweb Social?
Lineweb Social was created by Andrew Matia and LineWeb. It is an original LineWeb product and its source code is publicly available on GitHub.
How is Lineweb Social different from a generic social feed?
It is designed around community ownership, chronological feeds, explicit relationships and server-enforced safety. The product avoids opaque engagement ranking and gives operators a documented foundation they can shape around a focused audience.
Is Lineweb Social production-ready?
The current public release is version 0.1.0-alpha.1. It is intended for local evaluation, extension-contract discussion and early community feedback, and it is not presented as a supported production release.
Is Lineweb Social free and open source?
Yes. The public repository is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. Teams can inspect the code, run it themselves and contribute under the terms of that license.
Inspect the product, the decisions and the work behind it.
Explore the public source or talk with LineWeb about a focused community product shaped around your own audience and operating model.