Discourse alternatives and similar software solutions
Based on the "Social Networks and Forums" category.
Alternatively, view Discourse alternatives based on common mentions on social networks and blogs.
-
Reddit
Social networking and news website where registered community members can submit content. -
Flarum
Delightfully simple forums. Flarum is the next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun again. -
Lemmy
A link aggregator / reddit clone for the fediverse. Reddit alternative built in Rust. -
Isso
A lightweight commenting server written in Python and JavaScript. It aims to be a drop-in replacement for Disqus. -
Patchwork
Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on top of Secure Scuttlebutt -
PixelFed
Pixelfed is an open-source, federated platform alternate to Instagram. -
Loomio
Loomio is a collaborative decision-making tool that makes it easy for anyone to participate in decisions which affect them. -
Misago
Misago is fully featured modern forum application that is fast, scalable and responsive. -
phpBB
Flat-forum bulletin board software solution that can be used to stay in touch with a group of people or can power your entire website. -
flaskbb
FlaskBB is forum software written in Python using the microframework Flask. You can easily create new topics, posts and send other users private messages. It also includes basic administration and moderation tools. -
remark42
A lightweight and simple comment engine, which doesn't spy on users. It can be embedded into blogs, articles or any other place where readers add comments. -
Pump.io
Stream server that does most of what people really want from a social network. -
Misskey
Decentralized app-like microblogging server/SNS for the Fediverse, using the ActivityPub protocol like GNU social and Mastodon. -
twister
Fully decentralized P2P microblogging platform leveraging the free software implementations of Bitcoin and BitTorrent protocols. -
Movim
A brand new social network, full of awesome features in a modern and smart interface. -
Talkyard
Create a community, where your users can suggest ideas and get questions answered. And have friendly open-ended discussions and chat -
Simple Machines Forum
Free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes. -
Hubzilla
Independent general-purpose websites that not only connect with their associated members and viewers, but also connect together. -
Jappix
Jappix is an open social platform, that let's you easily get or keep in touch with everyone. -
Scoold
Stack Overflow in a JAR. An enterprise-ready Q&A platform with full-text search, SAML, LDAP integration and social login support. -
Satellity
Yet another open source forum written in Golang, React and PostgreSQL. -
twtxt.net
a Self-Hosted, Twitter™-like Decentralised micro-logging platform. No ads, no tracking, your content, your data! -
BuddyPress
A powerful plugin that takes your WordPress.org powered site beyond the blog with social-network features like user profiles, activity streams, user groups, and more. -
Human-Connection
Free and open-source social network for active citizenship. -
Socialhome
Federated and decentralized profile builder and social network engine. -
Orange Forum
Orange Forum is an easy to deploy forum that has minimal dependencies and uses very little javascript. -
cartulary
RSS reader, readability tool, article archiver, microblogger, social graph manager and reading list manager. -
GNU social
Social communication software for both public and private communications. -
Gosora
Gosora is an ultra-fast and secure forum software written in Go that balances usability with functionality. -
Buddycloud
Tools, libraries, services and a community to build user-to-user, group and social messaging into your app. Saves time. Scales up. Supports you.
Scout APM - Leading-edge performance monitoring starting at $39/month
* Code Quality Rankings and insights are calculated and provided by Lumnify.
They vary from L1 to L5 with "L5" being the highest. Visit our partner's website for more details.
Do you think we are missing an alternative of Discourse or a related project?
README
Discourse is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. Use it as a:
- mailing list
- discussion forum
- long-form chat room
To learn more about the philosophy and goals of the project, visit discourse.org.
Screenshots
Browse lots more notable Discourse instances.
Development
To get your environment setup, follow the community setup guide for your operating system.
- If you're on macOS, try the macOS development guide.
- If you're on Ubuntu, try the Ubuntu development guide.
- If you're on Windows, try the Windows 10 development guide.
If you're familiar with how Rails works and are comfortable setting up your own environment, you can also try out the [Discourse Advanced Developer Guide](docs/DEVELOPER-ADVANCED.md), which is aimed primarily at Ubuntu and macOS environments.
Before you get started, ensure you have the following minimum versions: Ruby 2.6+, PostgreSQL 10+, Redis 4.0+. If you're having trouble, please see our [TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE](docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md) first!
Setting up Discourse
If you want to set up a Discourse forum for production use, see our [Discourse Install Guide](docs/INSTALL.md).
If you're looking for business class hosting, see discourse.org/buy.
Requirements
Discourse is built for the next 10 years of the Internet, so our requirements are high.
Discourse supports the latest, stable releases of all major browsers and platforms:
Browsers | Tablets | Phones |
---|---|---|
Apple Safari | iPadOS | iOS |
Google Chrome | Android | Android |
Microsoft Edge | ||
Mozilla Firefox |
Built With
- Ruby on Rails — Our back end API is a Rails app. It responds to requests RESTfully in JSON.
- Ember.js — Our front end is an Ember.js app that communicates with the Rails API.
- PostgreSQL — Our main data store is in Postgres.
- Redis — We use Redis as a cache and for transient data.
- BrowserStack — We use BrowserStack to test on real devices and browsers.
Plus lots of Ruby Gems, a complete list of which is at /master/Gemfile.
Contributing
Discourse is 100% free and open source. We encourage and support an active, healthy community that accepts contributions from the public – including you!
Before contributing to Discourse:
- Please read the complete mission statements on discourse.org. Yes we actually believe this stuff; you should too.
- Read and sign the Electronic Discourse Forums Contribution License Agreement.
- Dig into [CONTRIBUTING.MD](CONTRIBUTING.md), which covers submitting bugs, requesting new features, preparing your code for a pull request, etc.
- Always strive to collaborate with mutual respect.
- Not sure what to work on? We've got some ideas.
We look forward to seeing your pull requests!
Security
We take security very seriously at Discourse; all our code is 100% open source and peer reviewed. Please read our security guide for an overview of security measures in Discourse, or if you wish to report a security issue.
The Discourse Team
The original Discourse code contributors can be found in [AUTHORS.MD](docs/AUTHORS.md). For a complete list of the many individuals that contributed to the design and implementation of Discourse, please refer to the official Discourse blog and GitHub's list of contributors.
Copyright / License
Copyright 2014 - 2021 Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2.0 (or later); you may not use this work except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License in the LICENSE file, or at:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
Discourse logo and “Discourse Forum” ®, Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.
Dedication
Discourse is built with love, Internet style.
*Note that all licence references and agreements mentioned in the Discourse README section above
are relevant to that project's source code only.