Self-hosted alternatives to Discourse
Looking for different forum software than Discourse? These 11 apps run discussion forums and community Q&A on your own server.
About Discourse: Open-source discussion forum and community platform.
| App | Health | Stars | License | Docker | RAM (est.) | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flarum | Active | 16.4k | MIT | – | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Answer | Active | 15.7k | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| NodeBB | Active | 15.2k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Misago | Active | 2.8k | GPL-2.0 | ✓ | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| phpBB | Active | 2.1k | GPL-2.0 | – | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| MyBB | Active | 1.2k | LGPL-3.0 | – | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Scoold | Active | 920 | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Simple Machines Forum | Active | 758 | BSD-3-Clause | – | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| qpixel | Active | 443 | AGPL-3.0 | – | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Talkyard | Maintained | 1.8k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| AsmBB | Unknown | – | EUPL-1.2 | – | 4 GB | $20/mo |
The options in detail
1. Flarum
Delightfully simple forums. Next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun again.
Active Last commit 2026-11-06. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v2.0.0 (2026-10-09). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
2. Answer
Knowledge-based community software. You can use it to quickly build your Q&A community for product technical support, customer support, user communication, and more.
Active Last commit 2026-09-22. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v2.0.3 (2026-10-09). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
3. NodeBB
Forum software built for the modern web.
Active Last commit 2026-11-09. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v4.16.7 (2026-10-31). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
4. Misago
Fully featured modern forum application that is fast, scalable and responsive.
Active Last commit 2026-10-23. Latest release 0.39.6 (2026-06-19). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
5. 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.
Active Last commit 2026-11-09. Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
6. MyBB
Free, extensible forum software package.
Active Last commit 2026-11-06. 3 releases in the past year. Latest release mybb_1841 (2026-09-16). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
7. Scoold
Stack Overflow in a JAR. An enterprise-ready Q&A platform with full-text search, SAML, LDAP integration and social login support.
Active Last commit 2026-11-03. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release 1.70.2 (2026-09-21). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
8. Simple Machines Forum
Free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes.
Active Last commit 2026-11-09. Latest release v2.1.8 (2026-10-11). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
9. qpixel
Q&A-based community knowledge-sharing software.
Active Last commit 2026-11-09. 2 releases in the past year. Latest release v0.13.0 (2026-09-12). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
10. Talkyard
Create a community, where your users can suggest ideas and get questions answered. And have friendly open-ended discussions and chat (Slack/StackOverflow/Discourse/Reddit/Disqus hybrid).
Maintained Last commit 2026-07-10. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release tyse-v1.2026.003-f220a7d9f-regular (2026-05-26). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
11. AsmBB
Fast, SQLite-powered forum engine written in ASM.
Unknown Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
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