{"id":227448,"date":"2026-03-09T18:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T18:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/periwinkle-is-making-self-hosted-social-media-on-blueskys-at-protocol-even-easier-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T18:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T18:18:25","slug":"periwinkle-is-making-self-hosted-social-media-on-blueskys-at-protocol-even-easier-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/periwinkle-is-making-self-hosted-social-media-on-blueskys-at-protocol-even-easier-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Periwinkle is making self-hosted social media on Bluesky’s AT Protocol even easier | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The Berlin-based startup Periwinkle<\/a> is offering a new avenue for those wanting to leave centralized social media operated by Big Tech companies. Instead of joining a decentralized, open social networking app like Mastodon or Bluesky, Periwinkle allows anyone to set up a social media account on their own domain, under their own control.<\/p>\n

Built on top of the AT Protocol, the same open source technology that powers the X alternative Bluesky<\/a>, Periwinkle aims to provide the infrastructure you need to run your own social media.<\/p>\n

That means you can have an account on your own domain on sites like Bluesky, or a hosted social site specific to your organization or community. Periwinkle offers domains for purchase and allows you to store your data, including posts, follows, and your user profile, on your own PDS (personal data server),<\/a> which is part of the AT Protocol infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Periwinkle makes the transition easier for non-technical users or others who don\u2019t want the headache of having to set up and maintain their own server. Once on Periwinkle, users\u2019 servers are updated, backed up, and monitored by the company, leaving the user free to focus on posting to social media. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be the first-to-market fully managed PDS service; there is nobody else that is doing this right now,\u201d says Periwinkle founder Charles Blumenthal<\/a>. (To be clear, there are other organizations offering alternatives to Bluesky\u2019s PDS, like Blacksky<\/a>, but its tools are focused on those who are building self-governable online communities.)<\/p>\n

Image Credits:<\/strong>Periwinkle<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This idea is similar to how people who want to create their own blog can choose between an easy-to-use hosted blog on WordPress.com, a DIY installation using the open source software from WordPress.org, or something in between \u2014 like a WordPress installation that\u2019s managed by a third-party hosting provider. Periwinkle is offering the same, but for decentralized social media.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal, a former software engineer at McKinsey, says that the idea came to him after he realized a lot of people didn\u2019t really understand the AT Protocol and its advantages.<\/p>\n

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Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Periwinkle<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really not a great idea that a couple of billionaires have control over the way billions of people communicate,\u201d he told TechCrunch. \u201cIf you could leave Twitter to some competitor and all of your followers and all of your content and everything \u2014 it just is there with you, and you just log in \u2014 you would do it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The growth of the AT Protocol-powered app Bluesky, which now has<\/a> more than 43 million registered users, shows there\u2019s some demand for this type of offering, Blumenthal said, adding that he believes this market will likely expand over time to include people who want to own their own personal data, instead of trusting it to another company.<\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Periwinkle<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Periwinkle\u2019s premium plans start at $4 per month for a Basic Plan with support for five handles and 5GB of storage, with real-time backups and the choice between hosting in the EU or the U.S. The 25GB Pro and 50GB Team plans, at $14 per month and $30 per month, respectively, offer support for more handles, longer backup data retention, and service-level agreements. Custom enterprise plans are also available.<\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong>Periwinkle<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A free plan is available for those who want to try the service, with 500MB of storage.<\/p>\n

These plans could be useful to those who want more granular control over their social media account, like public officials or political candidates, or accounts operated by businesses. Over time, the company aims to add more tools like automated post deletions, archiving tools, and more. <\/p>\n

Blumenthal is currently a solo founder, and the company is self-funded for the time being, though he\u2019s been chatting with investors in Europe, he said. In time, he\u2019d like to bring on another engineer and someone else to handle the communications and marketing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Berlin-based startup Periwinkle is offering a new avenue for those wanting to leave centralized social media operated by Big Tech companies. Instead of joining a decentralized, open social networking app like Mastodon or Bluesky, Periwinkle allows anyone to set up a social media account on their own domain, under their own control. Built on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-227448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}