mstdn.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A general-purpose Mastodon server with a 500 character limit. All languages are welcome.

Administered by:

Server stats:

17K
active users

You don't need to use the official Mastodon apps, they're not the best way to use Mastodon. The official apps only arrived last year, and they were intended as "Fisher Price My First Mastodon" things with a restricted set of features.

Third party apps have been around longer than official ones, and include way more features. You can sign in with the same account on all apps.

:android: On Android try Tusky, Fedilab, Megalodon, Tooot

:apple_inc: On iPhone/iPad, try Toot!, Ice Cubes, Ivory, Mona

@feditips Any free clients for iOS (except Ice Cubes)?

FediTips has moved!

@Chanderton

Mona has a free mode and a free trial of the full mode.

It is okay to pay for Mastodon apps though, because this is a sustainable way to fund their development. They generally don't collect data or show ads, so they depend on payments or donations to keep doing.