Discourse
The most recommended of 6 forum software
Open-source, self-hostable threaded forum that people recommend as an asynchronous alternative to Discord. Common caveat: gamified badges and notifications.
Open-source, self-hostable threaded forum that people recommend as an asynchronous alternative to Discord. Common caveat: gamified badges and notifications.
65 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 35
- criticize it
- 30
- approval share
- 54%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 35 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Threaded async discussion that persists
“It's everything Discord isn't: asynchronous, open source, and self-hostable.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” “The nice thing about Discourse is, I feel like threads are more permanent.”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests” “Threaded BBS are much better for organizing communities, like Discourse.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month” - Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Connect a GitHub repo, get a community for your OSS project”
- Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “OpenAI Should Build Slack”
Easy to use and friction-free
“It's incredibly nice and works just as well on mobile and desktop.”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Bring Back Crappy Forums” “Discourse has been really nice for about a decade.”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Bring Back Crappy Forums” “Discourse has much less friction.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time” Easy setup and self-hosting
“Every once in a while you have to run a command. Over the last 10-12 years there were I think 2 problems where this did not work out of the box.”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Discourse Is Not Going Closed Source” “All of my self hosted SAAS (redmine , gitea, discourse , vaultwaden , GLPI etc etc )”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Figma restricts MCP access to whitelisted clients, excluding Pi” “there have been a bunch of improvements in the setup process recently”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally” Excellent, popular forum software
“I think Discourse is the platform of choice right now”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “I don't enjoy the Internet any more” “At being forum software, it's excellent.”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “In Search of a Discord Replacement”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Dated, impersonal look
“they should have cloned the "discourse" web app/forum. Still looks like shit on every platform”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Zulip.com Values” “Discourse is less of a PITA than Discord, but only marginally. It's still a fugly web forum.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Revive a mostly dead Discord server” “Not sure why modern alternatives to phpBB, like Discourse, feel so impersonal and boring.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “I think I hate the internet” Merged categories and threading model
“instead of categories so project maintainers will never be allowed to moderate their own spaces”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Calling all open source maintainers working with Ruby” “the threading model that was popularized by Discourse is really not appealing at all”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Bring Back Crappy Forums” “Discourse UX is so much worse than phpBB because it merges all categories.”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Getting phpBB 1.4.4 working in Docker” Gamified badges and notifications
“I just wish that the whole badges thing was off by default. It's a forced gamification that's just annoying and doesn't really teach anything.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally” “all the bullshit notifications about level promotions, earning badges”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Discourse Is Not Going Closed Source” Slow loading and poor performance
“Discourse "loading" screen is the worst user experience. It's long, non-informative and meaningless.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “We Abandoned Matrix: The Dark Truth About User Security and Safety (2024)” “it signalled that they completely gave up on providing a performant forum software”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “We Abandoned Matrix: The Dark Truth About User Security and Safety (2024)”
Other forum software people recommend
The four most recommended other forum software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 6 forum software, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 69 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it checks for similarity in your subject line (and can extend it to the body) and shows you a list of similar posts next to it”
“There’s no midsize social network where a few thousand tech leaders talk to each other.”
“All of my self hosted SAAS (redmine , gitea, discourse , vaultwaden , GLPI etc etc )”
“The nice thing about Discourse is, I feel like threads are more permanent.”
“we managed to get RCE on OpenAI's instance”
“Not sure why modern alternatives to phpBB, like Discourse, feel so impersonal and boring.”
“Discourse UX is so much worse than phpBB because it merges all categories.”
“It is pretty easy to do plugins and custom themes in Discourse”
“I think Discourse is the platform of choice right now”
“Discourse and Zulip are better for things that should be preserved”
“instead of categories so project maintainers will never be allowed to moderate their own spaces”
“Discourse has one major technical challenge currently, that I know about. It doesn't work (for being logged in and interacting) on iOS 15 and older”
“it pushes people to read the whole discussion before answering”
“the threading model that was popularized by Discourse is really not appealing at all”
“Something was unsettling with Discourse to me though - it had an opinionated UI, and some design choices that made it feel different from traditional (-BB type) forums.”
“Discourse has been really nice for about a decade.”
“It's incredibly nice and works just as well on mobile and desktop.”
“explain to me why a Discourse isn't a better choice?”
“all the bullshit notifications about level promotions, earning badges”
“Every once in a while you have to run a command. Over the last 10-12 years there were I think 2 problems where this did not work out of the box.”
“Most are genuinely positive experiences.”
“Instead of Discord, you can give the people Discourse.”
“that the replies still stay in chronological order”
“At being forum software, it's excellent.”
“threaded forums like Discourse are far better”
“There are plenty of free/open source alternatives like Discourse, Zulip, Matrix”
“Threaded BBS are much better for organizing communities, like Discourse.”
“It's everything Discord isn't: asynchronous, open source, and self-hostable.”
“they should have cloned the "discourse" web app/forum. Still looks like shit on every platform”
“Discourse is awful software, from a user standpoint.”
“I just wish that the whole badges thing was off by default. It's a forced gamification that's just annoying and doesn't really teach anything.”
“there have been a bunch of improvements in the setup process recently”
“I'm not a big fan of the gamified notification system”
“I’m glad there’s still a market for it.”
“Discourse is less of a PITA than Discord, but only marginally. It's still a fugly web forum.”
“it is indeed ironic that them building Discourse has created far better communities than SO ever was”
“Discourse has much less friction.”
“it signalled that they completely gave up on providing a performant forum software”
“Discourse "loading" screen is the worst user experience. It's long, non-informative and meaningless.”
“I consider e.g. Discourse to be much healthier”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.