Skip to content
AppDuo
ReviewsComparisonsBest ofCollections
Source-backed analysis13

Review basis

Research-based review: the AppDuo Editorial Team compiled it from official pages, documentation, app stores, press and user feedback, without hands-on testing. Every claim links to a source with the date it was checked.

13 reference sources

Information updated Nov 11, 2026

How we review
Discourse logo

Discourse Review

Open-source forum software, self-hosted or on paid hosting

Editorial Team7.3/10Write the first review

By Official AppDuo editorial team · Updated

  • Web
  • iOS
  • Android
Open source · $100.00/mo (business plan)
Visit Discourse
Compare side by side
On this page

Decide at a glance

Our verdict

Discourse suits organisations that want a long-lived discussion forum, open-source code and control over their data. The trade-off is technical upkeep when self-hosting, and hosted paid plans that start at USD 100 per month.

Best for: Product-support and open-source project communities

Skip it if: People who mainly want real-time chat, or want paid hosting on a small budget

Pros

  • Open source under GPL v2, free to self-host
  • Free hosted plan with unlimited members
  • AI summaries, automatic translation, AI spam detection and a full API

Cons

  • Hosted paid plans are costly for small communities: USD 100 per month for Pro
  • The DiscourseHub app rates 2.5/5 on Google Play (433 reviews)
All pros and cons · Who is it for?

Pros

  • Single sign-on and several officially supported plugins
  • Interface in 40+ languages (English, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, …)

Cons

  • Many security advisories are published on GitHub, so self-hosters must patch regularly

Best for

  • Teams with engineers able to run their own server

Experience & key features

Discourse is discussion-forum software created in 2013 by Jeff Atwood, Robin Ward and Sam Saffron. It is open source under GPL v2, with the code on GitHub. The company's about page cites 22k+ communities, naming Asana, OpenAI, Zoom, GitLab and Atlassian as customers.

Discourse offers threaded topics, real-time chat (since 3.0 in January 2023), SSO, an API and officially supported plugins. The interface is translated by the community, and the repository ships 40+ interface languages. In 2025 the company added a rich-text composer, the Horizon theme, Discourse ID, AI spam detection and automatic translation; the features page says content can be translated by AI or by hand into up to 49 languages.

Self-hosting is free; you only pay for infrastructure. Official hosting has a Free plan, Pro at USD 100/month, Business at USD 500/month and custom Enterprise pricing; Pro and Business have free trials plus 85% education and 50% non-profit discounts. The pricing page lists monthly prices only, with no yearly rates or refund policy, and downgrades require contacting the company.

Discourse fits communities that need searchable, long-lived discussion, such as product support. If quick chat is the priority, consider Discord; for courses and paid memberships, Circle or Mighty Networks fit better.

Screenshots

Discourse home page
Discourse home page
Features page
Features page

Plans & pricing

Prices last verified Nov 11, 2026

Self-host

Business

Free

Software is free under GPL v2; you pay for your own infrastructure.

Free (hosted)

Business

Free

2 staff seats, 5 GB storage, 20k emails/month, up to 10 categories, community-forum support.

Pro

Business

$100/mo

5 staff seats, 20 GB storage, 100k emails/month, dedicated email support.

Business

Business

$500/mo

15 staff seats, 100 GB storage, 300k emails/month, priority support.

Enterprise

Business

Contact sales

Custom pricing: unlimited staff seats, 200 GB+ storage, 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Free plan limits
Hosted Free plan: unlimited members and 500k page views per month. Pro and Business offer free trials with no card required up front.
Free trial
No free trial
Cancellation & refunds

The pricing page does not describe a refund policy.

Privacy

Per its privacy policy, CDCK says it does not sell personal information for money but may disclose data to marketing databases and data brokers for "valuable consideration" and uses data for targeted advertising. For forums it hosts, CDCK acts as a processor and forum administrators set their own practices. The company states it does not use customer data to train AI models. Data is mostly stored in the US, with some forums in Canada or the EU.

Official pricing page

Discourse alternatives

Circle logo7.3/10

Circle

Paid community platform bundling courses, events, payments and branded apps

Free trial
Discord logo7.0/10

Discord

Server-based voice, video and text chat that grew out of gaming communities

Freemium

Controversies & incidents

Issues documented by the press, regulators, courts or the vendor itself. Every item is sourced; unproven claims are labelled as allegations. Last researched: Nov 11, 2026

  • Low impactConfirmedSecurity ·

    Many security advisories published on GitHub

    The Discourse repository lists many security advisories; its first page shows 10 dated 10 Nov 2026, two rated High. These are project-published advisories, not a reported data breach.

    Read the full account

    According to the GitHub Security Advisories page for discourse/discourse, the 10 entries dated 10 Nov 2026 include an authorization bypass in group-inbox email replies (High) and a denial of service via unbounded search terms (High), plus Moderate and Low issues. The page shows 34 pages of advisories. It does not give CVE IDs or patched versions, so real-world impact needs checking per advisory. A search found no press-reported data breach.

    Sources:GitHub Security Advisories, discourse/discourse

Frequently asked questions

Is Discourse free?

Free to self-host. Official hosting also has a Free plan limited to 2 staff seats, 5 GB of storage and 10 categories.

Does Discourse limit members?

Per the pricing page, members are unlimited on all plans.

Is Discourse available in Vietnamese?

Yes. The Discourse repository includes a Vietnamese interface translation, alongside 40+ other community-contributed languages.

Does Discourse have mobile apps?

Discourse forums work in a phone browser, and the DiscourseHub app for iOS and Android collects notifications across forums; it rates 4.0/5 on the App Store and 2.5/5 on Google Play.

Does Discourse train AI on customer data?

No. The privacy policy states CDCK does not use customer data to train AI models.

Review evidence & sources13

Scores

Ease of use
7.0
Why this score

A rich-text composer, one-click Discourse ID and an interface in 40+ languages help newcomers, but self-hosting needs Docker and a server, and the DiscourseHub app rates 2.5/5 on Google Play.

Features
8.3
Why this score

Threaded discussion, chat, SSO, API, plugins, AI summaries, content translation into up to 49 languages and AI spam detection.

Value for money
7.0
Why this score

The software and hosted Free plan cost nothing, and Pro and Business carry 85% education and 50% non-profit discounts, but Pro at USD 100/month and Business at USD 500/month are high for small communities.

Performance
7.5
Why this score

Built on Rails, PostgreSQL and Redis with a 1 GB RAM minimum; Enterprise carries a 99.9% uptime guarantee. No independent benchmarks were verified.

Support
7.0
Why this score

The Free plan relies on the community forum; Pro adds email support and Business and above get priority support. Docs and the Meta forum are extensive.

Privacy & security
6.8
Why this score

It states customer data is not used to train AI and self-hosting is an option, but for data CDCK controls the policy allows sharing with data brokers and targeted advertising, and many security advisories are published on GitHub.

What users say

Sources

Specs & compatibility
Developer
Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.
Headquarters
United States
Launched
2013
Category
Community

Capabilities

  • Open source
  • Self-hostable
  • AI features
  • Public API
  • Integrations
  • Mobile app
  • Real-time collaboration

Platforms

  • Web
  • iOS
  • Android

Interface languages

  • English
  • Vietnamese
  • Japanese
  • Chinese
  • Spanish
  • French
  • Korean
  • German
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Thai
  • Indonesian

Integrations

  • Google
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Discord
  • GitHub
  • YouTube

Support

  • Email
  • Community forum
  • Help center

Change history

  1. Feature.A Discourse blog post recounts its localisation history: about 20 community translations by 2014 and 74 languages migrated to a new translation platform in 2020.
  2. Feature.The 2025 year-in-review lists the rich-text composer, Horizon theme, Discourse ID, AI spam detection and automatic translation.
  3. Feature.Discourse 3.0 released with real-time chat, a new sidebar and user status, per It's FOSS.
Full change history (4)
  1. Company.Announced a USD 20 million Series A from Pace Capital, with First Round Capital participating.
About the author

Reviews & comments

Written by readers with a verified email address.

No reviews yet. Have you used Discourse? Share your real experience.

Reader reviews are counted separately and do not affect the Editorial Team’s score.

No comments yet. Be the first to share your experience.

Comments are readers’ opinions, not content from the AppDuo Editorial Team.