Pixelfed
Your photos. Your AWS account. Nobody else's ads.
A production-ready Pixelfed deployment in your own AWS account in about 20 minutes — the free, federated photo-sharing platform, configured the way an AWS consultancy would do it for a growing community.
Deploy on AWS Marketplace →Photo Sharing Without Ads or Algorithms
Photography Communities & Collectives
A dedicated gallery, not a feed competing for attention.
Media Organizations
Photo publishing you fully control, without a platform's algorithm.
Artists & Creatives
A no-ads, no-tracking home for your portfolio.
Nonprofits
Visual storytelling without a platform inserting ads.
Universities
Student and alumni photo communities under institutional control.
Brand Communities
A moderated, on-brand space free of algorithmic manipulation.
If you're tired of an algorithm deciding who sees your community's work, the next section explains what running your own instance actually gets you.
What $0.02/hr Actually Buys You
Instagram is free, so this isn't a cost comparison either. Pixelfed's value isn't a cheaper price than a paid competitor — it's what you get instead of the free version: no ads, no algorithmic feed, no tracking, and moderation on your own terms.
No Ads, No Tracking
Nothing to monetize — there's no business model here except the infrastructure you're already paying for.
No Algorithm
A chronological timeline your community actually asked for, not one optimized for engagement.
Full Moderation Control
Set your own community rules instead of inheriting a platform-wide policy.
About $14.60/month for a photo-sharing platform with no ads, no tracking, and no algorithm — compared to $0 for a platform that sells your attention instead.
Free, Ethical Photo Sharing
Pixelfed is free and open source, and it federates via ActivityPub instead of locking your community's photos into one platform. Self-hosting it means full control over moderation and no algorithmic manipulation of what your community sees.
Free & open-source, no license fees
Federates with the wider fediverse
Photo data stays in your infrastructure
No ads, no tracking, no algorithm
Production-Ready, Following AWS Best Practices
This CloudFormation template and custom AMI deploy a complete Pixelfed environment — live in about 20 minutes.
Privacy First
No ads, no tracking.
Federation
Connect with the fediverse via ActivityPub.
Stories
Ephemeral content support.
Collections
Organize photos into albums.
What's Easy to Get Wrong, Handled By Default
Setting up an image processing and thumbnail pipeline
Auto-scaling EC2 instances, configured for image processing
Managing storage costs as the photo library grows
S3 photo storage with CloudFront image delivery, pay for what you use
Debugging ActivityPub federation issues
ElastiCache Redis, configured for reliable federation traffic
Setting up moderation tooling from scratch
Moderation tools included in the deployment, not bolted on later
FOSSonCloud is built by Ordinary Experts, an AWS Consulting Partner working in Infrastructure as Code since 2014. This isn't a repackaged black-box AMI — the CloudFormation template is open source, so you can see exactly what's being deployed.
Architecture
This pattern deploys a complete Pixelfed infrastructure including:
- Auto-scaling EC2 instances
- RDS MySQL database
- ElastiCache Redis
- S3 for photo storage
- CloudFront CDN for image delivery
What You'll Need
Everything required to go from this page to a running Pixelfed deployment.
An AWS Account
With billing enabled and permission to launch resources in the region you plan to deploy to.
A Subscription to This Pattern on AWS Marketplace
Accepting the marketplace terms is what makes the CloudFormation template available to launch in your account.
A Registered Domain Name
Pointed at the infrastructure this pattern creates — needed for your instance's public URL and SSL certificate.
IAM Permissions to Launch CloudFormation Stacks
The stack creates auto-scaling EC2 instances, an RDS database, ElastiCache, an S3 bucket, and a CloudFront distribution on your behalf.
About 20 Minutes
For the stack to finish launching before you can start sharing photos.
Up and Running in 4 Steps
Subscribe to the Pixelfed pattern on AWS Marketplace
Launch the CloudFormation stack in your AWS account
Configure your instance settings
Start sharing photos with your community — live in about 20 minutes
Self-Hosted Doesn't Mean Unsupported
Free Onboarding Session
A 1-hour call with a FOSSonCloud engineer, included with every deployment.
Ongoing Email Support
Direct line to support@fossoncloud.com whenever you need it.
Fully Open Source
Deploy on AWS Marketplace
Production-ready Pixelfed in your own AWS account, live in about 20 minutes.
Deploy on AWS Marketplace →