Discourse by discourse
A platform for community discussion. Free, open, simple.
About Discourse
From the project's README at github.com/discourse/discourse. Lightly cleaned for readability; for the full source see the upstream repo.
> You can self-host Discourse on your own infrastructure. But if you'd rather skip the setup, maintenance, and server management, we offer official Discourse hosting. > > Learn more about Discourse hosting
Discourse is a 100% open-source community platform for those who want complete control over how and where their site is run.
Our platform has been battle-tested for over a decade and continues to evolve to meet users’ needs for a powerful community platform.
Create discussion topics to foster meaningful conversations.
Health score breakdown
6-dimension composite. See methodology for formula and weights.
Adoption signals
Real-world usage data, pulled from each registry. The bigger the numbers, the more battle-tested the project.
| Signal | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 47k | github.com/discourse/discourse |
| GitHub forks | 8.9k | github.com/discourse/discourse |
| Docker Hub pulls | 56k | hub.docker.com / discourse |
Release & maintenance
Is this project actively maintained, or about to die? Check the recency of last commit and last release.
| Project age | 13.3 years | since Jan 2013 |
| Last commit | 2 days ago | May 5, 2026 |
| Security policy | SECURITY.md | declared by maintainers |
Self-hosting cost across providers
Detected requirements: 4GB RAM, 40GB disk minimum. Cheapest plan per provider that meets the requirement.
| Provider | Plan | Specs | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hetzner | CAX11 | 2c · 4GB · 40GB | $4.13 USD | Deploy → |
| vultr | VC2 | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5 USD | Deploy → |
| linode | Nanode 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5.12 USD | Deploy → |
| digitalocean | Basic Regular 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $6 USD | Deploy → |
Security advisories
CVE-2026-33415. What people say on Hacker News
Ready to self-host Discourse?
Spin up a hetzner CAX11 (4GB RAM, 40GB disk) for $4.13/mo and follow the project's official install docs.
Data last refreshed May 7, 2026.
Similar open-source projects
Projects in our directory that replace the same SaaS or share topics with Discourse.