Discourse
Advanced forum / community solution based on Ruby and JS.
Discourse vs Mastodon
Two self-hosted Communication - Social Networks and Forums apps, compared on the facts we track: GitHub popularity and activity, license, language, Docker images and a rough hosting estimate.
Side by side
| Discourse | Mastodon | |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Advanced forum / community solution based on Ruby and JS. | Federated microblogging server. |
| GitHub stars | 48,083 | 50,601 |
| Forks | 9.1k | 7.6k |
| Open issues (incl. PRs) | 311 | 4.6k |
| Commits (12 months) | 7.2k | 3k |
| Last activity | 2026-11-10 | 2026-11-09 |
| Latest release | _gh-attach-assets (2026-07-15) | v5.0.0-beta.1 (2026-11-08) |
| Maintenance health | Active | Active |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language / platform | Docker | Ruby |
| Docker Hub image | discourse/discourse | – |
| Docker pulls | 175.5k | – |
| Est. server size | ~2 GB, 1 vCPU | ~4 GB, 2 vCPU |
| Est. hosting from | $10/mo | $20/mo |
| Categories | Communication - Social Networks and Forums | Communication - Social Networks and Forums |
| Links | Website · Source | Website · Source |
What the numbers say
- Discourse and Mastodon have a similar number of GitHub stars (48.1k vs 50.6k).
- Discourse had more commits in the last 12 months (7,240 vs 3,009).
- Mastodon published a release more recently (v5.0.0-beta.1 on 2026-11-08; Discourse's latest is _gh-attach-assets on 2026-07-15).
- Discourse is licensed under GPL-2.0, Mastodon under AGPL-3.0.
- Mastodon is written in Ruby; the language of Discourse is not listed upstream.
- Deployment options listed upstream: Discourse: Docker; Mastodon: none listed.
- Only Discourse has a Docker Hub image that we detected (discourse/discourse).
- Our rough hardware estimate is lighter for Discourse (~2 GB server) than Mastodon (~4 GB); this is an estimate from the stack and category, not a benchmark.
Summary: Discourse leads on commit activity and Docker Hub availability. The right choice depends on the features you need — read both project descriptions and docs.
This summary is generated from GitHub, Docker Hub and awesome-selfhosted data as of 2026-11-15. It does not rate features or quality.
Get the Docker images
Discourse
docker pull discourse/discourseImage on Docker Hub. Ports, volumes and environment variables differ per app; follow the official docs.
Frequently asked questions
Is Discourse or Mastodon more popular?
They are close: Discourse has 48,083 GitHub stars and Mastodon has 50,601 (as of 2026-11-15).
Which is more actively maintained, Discourse or Mastodon?
Discourse had more commits over the last 12 months (7,240 vs 3,009). The last recorded activity was 2026-11-10 for Discourse and 2026-11-09 for Mastodon. Releases in the past year: Discourse 10+, Mastodon 10+. Our health labels: Discourse is “Active”, Mastodon is “Active”.
What licenses do Discourse and Mastodon use?
Discourse: GPL-2.0. Mastodon: AGPL-3.0.
Can I run Discourse and Mastodon with Docker?
Discourse has a Docker Hub image (discourse/discourse). We did not find one for Mastodon; check its documentation for install options.
Read more
Mastodon
Federated microblogging server.
Browse all self-hosted Communication - Social Networks and Forums apps.