Veridonia
Community-run European news feed with no ads or ranking, where random members vote on entries
Quick Overview
| Company | Astraplex Technologies, Lda |
|---|---|
| Category | Social Media |
| Headquarters | Alcochete, Portugal |
| EU Presence | EU (Portugal) |
| Data Location | Amazon Web Services, Ireland (eu-west-1); push notifications pass through Expo (United States) under Standard Contractual Clauses |
| Open Source | No |
| Pricing | Free on the web, iOS and Android. The terms of use state that community feeds are always free to read, that advertising is never an option and that only private-benefit features may ever be paid. No paid plan is published. |
| Replaces | Reddit, Hacker News, Google News |
Detailed Review
Veridonia is a news feed built from communities. Members post links or short texts, and whether a post enters the feed is not decided by an algorithm or by the author, but by a panel of community members drawn at random who answer one question: would most people here say this is worth seeing? Nothing ranks the feed, posts appear in the order the community cleared them, and each vote and decision sits on a public record anyone can read.
The contracting party is Astraplex Technologies, Lda, a Portuguese company in Alcochete, named in both the terms of use and the privacy policy. Servers, databases and email run on Amazon Web Services in Ireland, and the policy says it uses no analytics, tracking or advertising cookies. It is free on the web, iOS and Android, and the terms say advertising is never an option. The site states plainly that it is a small, self-funded Ukrainian team.
It sits in this category because it is a link-sharing community, the same shape as Lemmy and Wykop, but it is closer to a curated news feed than to a social network: there are no follower counts, no profiles to build an audience on, and the stated focus for now is European news in English. It is also very new, so the feed is thin compared with every other platform here.
What Veridonia does well
- Portuguese contracting entity, with data hosted on AWS in Ireland
- No ads and no analytics or tracking cookies, per the privacy policy
- Free on web, iOS and Android; reading needs no account
- Moderation and voting decisions are public and can be appealed to a fresh panel
- Anonymous accounts that can do everything a signed-in account can
Where Veridonia falls short
- Very small and new: the team says it shared most of the Europe feed itself
- Mostly European news in English, so far narrower than Lemmy or Mastodon
- Runs on US-owned AWS infrastructure (in Ireland), with Expo in the US for push notifications
- Closed source, with no federation or self-hosting, unlike the open-source networks on this page
Standout feature. A news feed in which random community members, not an algorithm or the poster, decide what gets in, with every decision on a public record.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Portuguese contracting entity, with data hosted on AWS in Ireland
- No ads and no analytics or tracking cookies, per the privacy policy
- Free on web, iOS and Android; reading needs no account
- Moderation and voting decisions are public and can be appealed to a fresh panel
- Anonymous accounts that can do everything a signed-in account can
Cons
- Very small and new: the team says it shared most of the Europe feed itself
- Mostly European news in English, so far narrower than Lemmy or Mastodon
- Runs on US-owned AWS infrastructure (in Ireland), with Expo in the US for push notifications
- Closed source, with no federation or self-hosting, unlike the open-source networks on this page
Alternatives to Veridonia
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Veridonia?
Veridonia is a news feed built from communities. Members post links or short texts, and whether a post enters the feed is not decided by an algorithm or by the author, but by a panel of community members drawn at random who answer one question: would most people here say this is worth seeing? Nothing ranks the feed, posts appear in the order the community cleared them, and each vote and decision sits on a public record anyone can read.
Where is Veridonia based?
Veridonia operates from Alcochete, Portugal, which places it under EU (Portugal).
What does Veridonia cost?
Free on the web, iOS and Android. The terms of use state that community feeds are always free to read, that advertising is never an option and that only private-benefit features may ever be paid. No paid plan is published..
Who is Veridonia best for?
Readers who want a community-curated European news feed. A news feed in which random community members, not an algorithm or the poster, decide what gets in, with every decision on a public record.
What are the drawbacks of Veridonia?
Very small and new: the team says it shared most of the Europe feed itself. Mostly European news in English, so far narrower than Lemmy or Mastodon. Runs on US-owned AWS infrastructure (in Ireland), with Expo in the US for push notifications. Closed source, with no federation or self-hosting, unlike the open-source networks on this page.
Is Veridonia a good alternative to Reddit?
Veridonia is built as a European alternative to Reddit: Community-run European news feed with no ads or ranking, where random members vote on entries. It will not be a like-for-like feature match in every respect, so check the review above for where the two genuinely differ before switching.
How does Veridonia compare to other Social Media tools?
Veridonia is one of several European Social Media tools we cover. It is most often compared with Reddit, Hacker News, Google News.