Bluesky vs. Threads: Which X alternative is right for you?

Since deciding to stop using X (it’s no longer the Twitter I knew and loved for a long time), I’ve been testing out various alternatives. And for me, there are two clear front-runners: Bluesky and Threads. They each have their upsides and downsides, so what’s a guy to do when stuck between choosing? I ended up running them both through the wringer, comparing the two social media platforms across different metrics—and now I’m sharing my experience to help you decide. If you’re ready to leave X but don’t know where else to go, here’s what you need to consider. Focus on the aspects most important to you. (Your mileage may vary, though, so you should try both yourself if you can.) The learning curve and ease of use Dave Parrack / Foundry Both Bluesky and Threads have incredibly similar user interfaces—reminiscent of the old Twitter, of course—and they’re both about as easy to learn and use. Twitter created the template for this type of social media, and neither Threads nor Bluesky deviate far from it. They each feature timelines that you scroll through, with simple menus allowing you to see activity on your posts and search for accounts and topics. It’s hard to pick a winner here, but if I had to, I would narrowly opt for Bluesky. The caveat is that you’ll have to put some work in first to make Bluesky as good as it can be. But once you’ve tweaked it to suit your needs and wants, the user experience edges out Threads. Learn more about easy wins to get the most out of Bluesky. Winner: Bluesky The ease of migrating over Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you already use X to some degree, you’re looking for a way off that platform, and you want to bring over as much as you can as conveniently as you can. After all, who wants to struggle through starting over from scratch? Bluesky has a dedicated tool called Sky Follower Bridge that makes it easy to migrate your connections from X (and Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Facebook) to Bluesky. With Threads, you can only import Instagram data (not followers). Meta is working on a tool to import followers from X, but it’s not as smooth or versatile as Sky Follower Bridge. For me, if you want to easily shift from X to an alternative, Bluesky wins by a long shot. But if you’re like me and you want to start fresh, then I think Threads wins by a margin. Winner: Bluesky The number of active users Statista In terms of user base, there’s a clear and unequivocal winner. While Bluesky has around 30 million monthly active users, Threads boasts over 350 million monthly active users as of Q1 2025. A higher number of monthly active users brings both pros and cons. There’s more likelihood of accounts you recognize being on Threads and there’s a greater variety of niche communities represented, but there’s also a lot more noise, trolls, and bots to contend with. Winner: Threads The level of engagement Dave Parrack / Foundry In my experience, the level of engagement is pretty well correlated with the number of active users on each platform. I’ve been using Bluesky for months, yet my posts and replies rarely get as much engagement as they do on my younger Threads account. There’s simply more opportunity to reach people on Threads than on Bluesky because of the sheer population. A reply to a post by a “big” account on Threads is going to give you more eyeballs, period, whereas Bluesky can feel nascent and underdeveloped. Winner: Threads The tone of conversation Joel Lee / Foundry A lot of people left Twitter well before Elon Musk acquired it and renamed it X—and for good reason. The overall tone of the conversation had shifted, leaving behind civility and bending towards argumentative trolling. So, are these alternatives any better? I would say that both are indeed better than X, at least for now. If you want to waste your time with people who have no intention of arguing in good faith, stick with X; meanwhile, both Threads and Bluesky offer opportunities to have productive conversations. Of the two, I find that the overall vibe is friendlier, nicer, and more positive on Bluesky. That might be due to the smaller user base and stronger moderation features that limit the impact of trolls, bots, engagement farmers, and argumentative types. Winner: Bluesky The content moderation Dave Parrack / Foundry Both Threads and Bluesky offer comprehensive content moderation options that grant you the ability to report posts, mute or block users, and enable various settings that help moderate the experience to your needs and wants. However, Bluesky wins here for two big reasons. First, the sheer number of moderation features is impressive, with a whole suite of tools and filters available for curating your feed and managing the interactions y

May 8, 2025 - 11:49

Bluesky vs. Threads: Which X alternative is right for you?

Since deciding to stop using X (it’s no longer the Twitter I knew and loved for a long time), I’ve been testing out various alternatives. And for me, there are two clear front-runners: Bluesky and Threads.

They each have their upsides and downsides, so what’s a guy to do when stuck between choosing? I ended up running them both through the wringer, comparing the two social media platforms across different metrics—and now I’m sharing my experience to help you decide.

If you’re ready to leave X but don’t know where else to go, here’s what you need to consider. Focus on the aspects most important to you. (Your mileage may vary, though, so you should try both yourself if you can.)

The learning curve and ease of use

Dave Parrack / Foundry

Both Bluesky and Threads have incredibly similar user interfaces—reminiscent of the old Twitter, of course—and they’re both about as easy to learn and use. Twitter created the template for this type of social media, and neither Threads nor Bluesky deviate far from it. They each feature timelines that you scroll through, with simple menus allowing you to see activity on your posts and search for accounts and topics.

It’s hard to pick a winner here, but if I had to, I would narrowly opt for Bluesky. The caveat is that you’ll have to put some work in first to make Bluesky as good as it can be. But once you’ve tweaked it to suit your needs and wants, the user experience edges out Threads. Learn more about easy wins to get the most out of Bluesky.

Winner: Bluesky

The ease of migrating over

Dave Parrack / Foundry

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you already use X to some degree, you’re looking for a way off that platform, and you want to bring over as much as you can as conveniently as you can. After all, who wants to struggle through starting over from scratch?

Bluesky has a dedicated tool called Sky Follower Bridge that makes it easy to migrate your connections from X (and Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Facebook) to Bluesky. With Threads, you can only import Instagram data (not followers). Meta is working on a tool to import followers from X, but it’s not as smooth or versatile as Sky Follower Bridge.

For me, if you want to easily shift from X to an alternative, Bluesky wins by a long shot. But if you’re like me and you want to start fresh, then I think Threads wins by a margin.

Winner: Bluesky

The number of active users

Statista

In terms of user base, there’s a clear and unequivocal winner. While Bluesky has around 30 million monthly active users, Threads boasts over 350 million monthly active users as of Q1 2025.

A higher number of monthly active users brings both pros and cons. There’s more likelihood of accounts you recognize being on Threads and there’s a greater variety of niche communities represented, but there’s also a lot more noise, trolls, and bots to contend with.

Winner: Threads

The level of engagement

Dave Parrack / Foundry

In my experience, the level of engagement is pretty well correlated with the number of active users on each platform. I’ve been using Bluesky for months, yet my posts and replies rarely get as much engagement as they do on my younger Threads account.

There’s simply more opportunity to reach people on Threads than on Bluesky because of the sheer population. A reply to a post by a “big” account on Threads is going to give you more eyeballs, period, whereas Bluesky can feel nascent and underdeveloped.

Winner: Threads

The tone of conversation

Joel Lee / Foundry

A lot of people left Twitter well before Elon Musk acquired it and renamed it X—and for good reason. The overall tone of the conversation had shifted, leaving behind civility and bending towards argumentative trolling. So, are these alternatives any better?

I would say that both are indeed better than X, at least for now. If you want to waste your time with people who have no intention of arguing in good faith, stick with X; meanwhile, both Threads and Bluesky offer opportunities to have productive conversations.

Of the two, I find that the overall vibe is friendlier, nicer, and more positive on Bluesky. That might be due to the smaller user base and stronger moderation features that limit the impact of trolls, bots, engagement farmers, and argumentative types.

Winner: Bluesky

The content moderation

Dave Parrack / Foundry

Both Threads and Bluesky offer comprehensive content moderation options that grant you the ability to report posts, mute or block users, and enable various settings that help moderate the experience to your needs and wants. However, Bluesky wins here for two big reasons.

First, the sheer number of moderation features is impressive, with a whole suite of tools and filters available for curating your feed and managing the interactions you have day in and day out. Second, Meta recently pushed back against fact-checking and heavy-handed moderation, which is likely to impact Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Winner: Bluesky

The quality of the algorithm

Dave Parrack / Foundry

It’s hard to objectively compare the qualities of any two social media algorithms, as everyone has their own idea of what represents a good one rather than a bad one. I can only base it on my own subjective experience of using both Bluesky and Threads for a while.

I’ll say that both are pretty good at serving up content they think you’ll want to see, and both require you to use them for a while before they can really tune into what you like. However, while Threads only offers “For You” and “Following” feeds, Bluesky has many more options. (More on that below in the “customization options” section.)

Despite that, I think Threads’ algorithm is better at knowing what you’ve engaged with, understanding what you like, and delivering more of the same. Much of that likely comes from the Threads team’s past experience and learnings under the Meta umbrella.

Winner: Threads

The customization options

Dave Parrack / Foundry

As far as customization, Bluesky wins hands-down. That’s no surprise given that Threads is part of Meta (which also owns Facebook and Instagram) while Bluesky was created to be a decentralized alternative to Twitter and designed with the end user’s satisfaction in mind.

While the Threads experience is basically going to be the same for everyone, Bluesky offers several customizations that allow each individual to curate their own experience. Options include custom feeds, user-created algorithms, shareable moderation lists, curated groups and feeds called Starter Packs, and tweakable “Following” feed preferences.

If customization is something you crave in a social media platform, Bluesky will likely be your best option. If you want a one-size-fits-all app that keeps it simple for everyone, Threads may be the better fit.

Winner: Bluesky

The handling of breaking news

Dave Parrack / Foundry

If there’s one reason why so many people still hang onto X despite wanting to leave, it’s because a lot of breaking news happens on X. The microblogging social media platform is unmatched when it comes to keeping up with fast news and reactions.

Both Threads and Bluesky offer the same basic capacity to be sources for breaking news, but the larger population on Threads gives it an edge over Bluesky for this purpose. Not only are there more organizations on Threads, but the sheer number of users means that people are more likely to be talking about news that broke elsewhere.

This is a double-edged sword, of course, as fake news and misinformation are more prolific on platforms with higher numbers of users. So, the best option if you mainly care about breaking news is to directly follow the official news organizations, wire services, and companies you trust on whichever of the two platforms you opt to use.

Winner: Threads

Bluesky vs. Threads: Which one for you?

If your main concerns are easy migration, control over your feed, customizing your experience, better curation and moderation features, and higher overall quality of conversations, then choose Bluesky. It’s also the obvious option if you don’t want to support (or expose yourself to the influence of) megacorporations like Meta.

If you just want to “be where everyone else is,” then pick Threads. It has a larger active community and wider overall adoption amongst companies and organizations, though that also comes with more run-ins with trolls, bots, and bad actors. Threads is a one-size-fits-all social media platform that leans into feeding you personalized, algorithmic content.

That said, you really can’t go wrong with either choice. The one winning move here is to finally get off of X for good. Between all the controversies, the negative energy, and the lack of moderation, you’re doing yourself a disservice by staying on the platform.