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 top of the AT Protocol, the same open source technology that powers the X alternative Bluesky, Periwinkle aims to provide the infrastructure you need to run your own social media.
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), which is part of the AT Protocol infrastructure.
Periwinkle makes the transition easier for non-technical users or others who don’t want the headache of having to set up and maintain their own server. Once on Periwinkle, users’ servers are updated, backed up, and monitored by the company, leaving the user free to focus on posting to social media.
“We’ll be the first-to-market fully managed PDS service; there is nobody else that is doing this right now,” says Periwinkle founder Charles Blumenthal. (To be clear, there are other organizations offering alternatives to Bluesky’s PDS, like Blacksky, but its tools are focused on those who are building self-governable online communities.)
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 — like a WordPress installation that’s managed by a third-party hosting provider. Periwinkle is offering the same, but for decentralized social media.
Blumenthal, a former software engineer at McKinsey, says that the idea came to him after he realized a lot of people didn’t really understand the AT Protocol and its advantages.
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“It’s really not a great idea that a couple of billionaires have control over the way billions of people communicate,” he told TechCrunch. “If you could leave Twitter to some competitor and all of your followers and all of your content and everything — it just is there with you, and you just log in — you would do it right?”
The growth of the AT Protocol-powered app Bluesky, which now has more than 43 million registered users, shows there’s 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.
Periwinkle’s premium plans start at $4 per month for a Basic Plan with support for 5 handles and 5 GB of storage, with real-time backups and the choice between hosting in the E.U. or the U.S. The 25 GB Pro and 50 GB 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.
A free plan is also available for those who want to try the service, with 500 MB of storage.
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.
Blumenthal is currently a solo founder, and the company is self-funded for the time being, though he’s been chatting with investors in Europe, he said. In time, he’d like to bring on another engineer and someone else to handle the communications and marketing.
