Work · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Mini social network that I made as my first MERN stack project

Mini social network that I made as my first web app project. - misa-j/social-network

This is a social network application built with the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js) and shared on GitHub. Created as a first full-stack project, it demonstrates foundational web development skills by… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Mini social network that I made as my first MERN stack project launched in 2020; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   /dev/null▲493

   a social network for devs

   4d ago · dev-null.sh · its alternatives →

2. 2
   Hashnode▲250

   A friendly and inclusive Q&A network for coders

   2015 · hashnode.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Minimal, no-JS web forum software▲392

   Hello HN! I've found my SQL knowledge to be lacking, so I made a project that uses SQLite as a backend. As it is intended for self-hosting I aim to make it easy to set up and maintain. Getting it up & running takes no more than a few commands (bar setting up a proxy such as nginx, which is out of scope). I've set up a "demo" site at https://forum.agreper.com/ if you want to try out the UI.

   2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   MERN 2.0▲143

   Easily build production-ready universal apps

   2016 · mern.io · its alternatives →

5. 5
   mern.ai 2.0▲56

   Generate MERN stack based web apps, using AI

   2024 · its alternatives →

6. 6HN
   Hacker News Clone – Clojure, GraphQL Learning Project▲179

   I have ported "The Fullstack Tutorial for GraphQL" series, https://www.howtographql.com/, from Javascript to Clojure/script. Blog post: https://promesante.github.io/2019/08/14/clojure_graphql_full... Source code GitHub repo: https://github.com/promesante/hn-clj-pedestal-re-frame Suggestions and corrections, more than welcome.

   2019 · its alternatives →

7. 7
   mern.ai▲127

   Build full stack apps by chatting with AI

   2023 · mern.ai · its alternatives →

8. 8
   Supa Social▲137

   Self-host your community platform

   Mar 2026 · once-ui.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   React Mini-Social-Network▲6

   A reactive mini-social-network created with React!!

   2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    Nextless.js▲111

    Full stack React SaaS starter kit, earn faster your 1st MRR

    2022 · nextlessjs.com · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Nextless.js: Full-Stack React SaaS Boilerplate with Auth and Payment▲80

    Serverless SaaS Boilerplate for building faster with Next.js and Node.js on AWS. React SaaS Starter kit with Express.js including authentication, payment and teams.

    2021 · nextlessjs.com · its alternatives →

12. 12
    MERN▲101

    Build isomorphic JavaScript apps using React and Redux

    2016 · mern.io · its alternatives →

13. 13
    StackBlink▲9

    The fastest way to host MERN, CMS, PHP, Static & Backend API

    Nov 2025 · its alternatives →

14. 14JI
    Jamn.io (social media structured as a weighted directed graph)▲10

    2022 · jamn.io · its alternatives →

15. 15
    Jonline, AGPLv3 Social Network Built with Rust, Flutter, React, gRPC▲55

    I have two instances that I'd love to see HN hug to death at https://jonline.io (to which I manually deploy) and https://getj.online (which is deployed to for any commit to main on GitHub). They're both running (side by side, in their own namespaces) on a bare minimum 2GB/50GB DigitalOcean droplet using DOKS (DigitalOcean Kubernetes). The configurations are in: https://github.com/JonLatane/jonline/tree/main/deploys/k8s So far this is a solo endeavor, but with my recent CI integrations and consolidations of things within the…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    A minimal setup for React/ES6 sites with a Firebase back end▲59

    Minimal boilerplate and configuration for the development of firebase websites with react & es6 - Jon-Biz/simple-static-react-firebase

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Stack Underflow – stackoverflow clone made using MERN and GraphQL▲21

    Feature-rich ‘stack overflow’ (QnA site) clone. Made using MERN + GraphQL stack. - amand33p/stack-underflow

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    React-hn – Supports all Hacker News API v0 item types▲69

    React-powered Hacker News client. Contribute to insin/react-hn development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    Ultimate React App Starter▲78

    Brings a full-stack React.js web app to life in minutes

    2021 · reactapp.dev · its alternatives →

20. 20
    I cloned HN to make a simple portfolio page▲66

    I figured, "what better way to look at a list of (hopefully) inspiring projects?" The upvotes work and are globally synced.

    2024 · guycombinator.net · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Lumen▲5

    React.js / Firebase Social Network

    2019 · lumen-6834a.firebaseapp.com · its alternatives →

22. 22SL
    soft-launching one of my pet projects▲27

    So a while ago I was thinking it would be neat to build a site that had the most absolute utility. The idea I came up with was a site to store those little protips that are super useful, if you know them ahead of time. I hired a guy to work on it with me, and ClueDB was born: http://cluedb.com/ Please give it a whirl (it uses Twitter auth as login but doesn't tweet anything) and tell me what you think! (Various trivia: My first try at a project coded by someone else and "product managed" by me. Runs on Flask + MongoDB. Also, this is totally unrelated to my startup.)

    2011 · cluedb.com · its alternatives →

23. 23
    devcli▲9

    MERN Project Generator CLI - Simplify MERN stack development

    2025 · devcli.manishraj.in · its alternatives →

24. 24
    MARN▲2

    MARN Stack: MongoDB, Apollo Server (GraphQL), React, Node.js

    2022 · jj09.net · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →