Discourse
Discourse: A mature choice for communities that need discussion, chat, moderation, and private spaces. Ranked #1 of 126 in Community Platforms by our editors (9.4/10); pricing: Free plan · 14-day trial; best for established communities needing deep discussion tools.
At a glance
- Editor score9.4 / 10
- PricingFree plan · 14-day trial
- Best forEstablished communities needing deep discussion tools
- Free planYes
- Paid from$100/mo
- Founded2013
- Facts checked21 Sep 2026
Where it wins
- Threaded discussions, chat, messaging, and searchable topics
- Detailed moderation with flagging, review queues, and trust levels
- Hosted or self-hosted deployment with APIs and mobile apps
Where it doesn't
- Free plan includes only 2 staff seats
- Events and advanced analytics start on the Business plan
- Enterprise features use custom pricing
Our verdict on Discourse
Discourse is an open-source community platform for technology companies, organizations, developer communities, support teams, and other groups. It brings together searchable, long-form discussions, real-time chat, private messaging, member groups, moderation tools, events, themes, plugins, email participation, and APIs. Communities can choose managed hosting or deploy Discourse on their own infrastructure, making it suited to organizations that want control over their platform and community structure.
Pricing covers a meaningful range of needs. The Free plan includes unlimited members, 500,000 monthly page views, 5 GB of storage, 20,000 monthly emails, and 2 staff seats. Pro costs $100 per month and adds unlimited members and chat, unlimited public and private categories, a custom domain, API and webhook access, and 5 staff seats. Business costs $500 per month and adds events, advanced reporting and analytics, automation, and 15 staff seats. Enterprise uses custom pricing and includes a 99.9% uptime guarantee, GDPR and CCPA compliant hosting, unlimited staff seats, and 50+ plugins. Free self-hosting is also available under its open-source license.
Its platform fit is broad: Discourse supports web, iOS, Android, APIs, and self-hosting, with integrations and authentication options including GitHub, Google, Discord, Microsoft, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, LTI, and Patreon. The combination of private categories, member groups, moderation workflows, customization tools, and AI-assisted community management suits established communities with varied participation and governance needs. Choose Discourse when organized discussion is central and you want deployment flexibility. A simpler tool may be a better fit for groups that only need basic chat or lightweight event hosting.
Your product? Our editors can test Discourse in depth and publish a review, labelled as paid · from $149/mo →
Discourse pricing
All 4 Discourse plans and prices →
Discourse fact sheet
| Free plan | Yes |
|---|---|
| Paid from | $100/mo |
| Member limit | Not verified |
| Event hosting | Yes |
| Private spaces | Yes |
| Custom domain | Yes |
| Moderation tools | Yes |
| Mobile apps | Both |
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Deployment | Cloud, Self-hosted, Mobile |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android |
| Compliance & security | ISO 27001, GDPR, SSO/SAML |
| Support | Email, Community, Docs |
| Built for | Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise (editorial estimate) |
| Integrations | 11 integrations: GitHub, Zendesk, WordPress, Patreon, Memberful, Zapier … See all → |
| Pricing | Free plan · 14-day trial (source) |
| Website | discourse.org |
| Facts checked | 21 Sep 2026 |
Discourse integrations
Discourse lists 11 integrations on its own site.
- GitHub
- Zendesk
- WordPress
- Patreon
- Memberful
- Zapier
- Make
- Skyvia
- IFTTT
- Brightcove
- Algolia
See all Discourse integrations →
Alternatives to Discourse
- RedditA flexible, free home for public topic discussions with substantial moderation tools.9.2
- UNAA flexible community stack for organizations that want control over hosting, features, and mobile apps.9.0
- NodeBBA flexible, budget-conscious forum platform with self-hosting and managed plans.8.9
See all Discourse alternatives →
Discourse vs the competition
- Discourse vs Reddit
- Discourse vs UNA
- Discourse vs NodeBB
- Discourse vs phpFox
- Discourse vs Whaller
- Discourse vs Higher Logic Vanilla
Compare Discourse with any tool side by side →
Also Ranked In
Discourse is ranked in 7 of our directories.
Used Discourse? Be the first to review it
The editor score above is our own research. What this page doesn't have yet is a reader's view — what you used Discourse for, what worked and what didn't. No stars are seeded and no review is paid for; an editor reads every one before it appears.
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Featured on iTechGuides
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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
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