# Discourse

A platform for community discussion. Free, open, simple.

Repository: https://github.com/discourse/discourse
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/discourse
Homepage: https://www.discourse.org
Language: Ruby
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: discourse, javascript, rails, ruby, ember, forum, postgresql
Last push: 2026-08-27T00:38:49+00:00
Link (homepage): https://www.discourse.org
Link (site_page): https://www.discourse.org/about
Link (site_page): https://www.discourse.org/features
Link (site_page): https://www.discourse.org/pricing
Link (site_page): https://www.discourse.org/enterprise

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 86/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 60, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4982, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 49, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: prerelease_only
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 47735, forks 9006 (observed 2026-08-28T04:12:11.317905+00:00)

## What it is
Discourse is a 100% open-source community discussion platform (forum software) built with Ruby on Rails and Ember.js, featuring built-in real-time chat, theming, plugins, and AI integrations. It can be self-hosted via Docker or used through official managed hosting, and powers over 22,000 communities.

## Use cases
- self-host a community forum
- run a customer support community to reduce tickets
- build a developer community with GitHub integration
- collect and prioritize product feedback with voting
- add real-time chat alongside threaded discussions
- create a team workspace with private categories
- migrate from a legacy forum to a modern platform

## When to choose
- you want a battle-tested, actively maintained open-source forum with full data ownership
- you need both long-form threaded discussions and real-time chat in one platform
- you need SSO, OAuth2, SAML, and 80+ integrations
- you want extensibility via themes, plugins, and a full API
- you need a scalable platform proven at enterprise scale (OpenAI, Mozilla, NVIDIA)

## When to avoid
- you only need lightweight real-time chat without structured topics
- you lack the resources to run a Docker-based deployment with PostgreSQL and Redis
- you need a simple static site or blog rather than a discussion platform
- you want a federated/social-network-style experience like Mastodon or Lemmy

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: stable
- function: web-framework, search-engine, auth, chat-interface, plugin-system, api-framework, email
- domain: web-development, self-hosted, cms, developer-tools
- platform: self-hosted, ruby, browser
- tags: forum, community-platform, discussion, ember, rails, chat, sso, open-source, linux, docker, web-server, postgresql, android, ios

## Member repositories
- discourse/discourse (main) score 86
- discourse/discourse_docker (infra) score 77

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:11.317905+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:20:51.925005+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/discourse/discourse (fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:11.317905+00:00, sha ed0b615344d5)
  - homepage: https://www.discourse.org (fetched 2026-08-29T07:42:22.550296+00:00, sha e0291eac296b)
  - site_page: https://www.discourse.org/about (fetched 2026-08-29T07:42:22.559815+00:00, sha 7cc17d76eafa)
  - site_page: https://www.discourse.org/features (fetched 2026-08-29T07:42:22.562000+00:00, sha 054e5a6d6d15)
  - site_page: https://www.discourse.org/pricing (fetched 2026-08-29T07:42:22.563761+00:00, sha b9fe50647a55)
  - site_page: https://www.discourse.org/enterprise (fetched 2026-08-29T07:42:22.566494+00:00, sha e0dbe90da54e)
  - site_page: https://www.discourse.org/wall-of-love (fetched 2026-08-29T07:42:22.568945+00:00, sha 92c8fc98e306)
  - site_page: https://www.discourse.org/integrations (fetched 2026-08-29T07:42:22.571079+00:00, sha 1b2e2b1c3778)
  - site_page: https://releases.discourse.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T07:42:22.572869+00:00, sha f3daff66e0b4)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.