Comparison

Vernissage vs Pixelfed

Vernissage and Pixelfed both land on Depends.

Vernissage

Depends

Confidence: Low

Vernissage looks like a legitimate open-source, fediverse-native photo-sharing app for hobbyists, photographers, and self-hosters.

Depends

Confidence: Medium

A good free pick for privacy-minded photographers and fediverse users who accept a smaller audience.

Vernissage versus Pixelfed
Compare	Vernissage	Pixelfed
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	Fediverse photographers	Privacy-minded photographers
Who it's not for	Brands needing audience reach or ads . no mainstream network here	Video creators . Pixelfed does not support video
Privacy	No confirmed public vulnerabilities for in reviewed sources; the only CVE found targets an unrelated WordPress theme of the same name.^⁸	Several public CVEs disclosed (auth bypass, missing authentication, SSRF); admins must patch promptly.
Support quality	No support reports found.	Donation-funded project, community-only support
Public sentiment	User feedback is sparse: fediverse Redditors weigh it against Pixelfed, and an indie blogger documents integrating it with Webmention tooling.^²	Users like the ad-free experience and UI speed but flag missing video, reliability, and sustainability worries.¹⁰
Biggest gotcha	Self-hosting means running the VernissageServer API component yourself; patching and backups are yours.^⁴	Patch fast: 2024 CVE scored 9.9/10; later auth-bypass, missing-auth, and SSRF CVEs disclosed.¹⁴