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Discourse

discourse · Forums & communities

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What is Discourse?

Discourse gives your community a home on a site you control, rather than a social platform or a chat app where answers get lost. Discussions are kept as topics that stay readable and findable later. It also has chat, email replies and moderation tools, so it can serve support, product or interest communities.

Discourse is an open-source platform for community discussion. Members start topics and reply in threads, talk in real-time chat channels, and get email and desktop notifications, with the option to reply by email. Moderators have a flag queue, post approval and bulk tools, and themes and plugins extend the site.

Core capabilities

  • Combines threaded discussion topics with built-in real-time chat.
  • Trusted regulars earn abilities to help moderate, alongside a flag queue.
  • Extends with themes and plugins, such as Discourse AI and Data Explorer.

Topics, chat and email

Discourse is built around discussion topics, and it also includes real-time chat channels whose messages can be quoted into topics. Members receive email and desktop notifications, can reply by email, and the site supports mailing list use. A built-in mobile layout and iOS and Android apps let people take part from their phones. Single sign-on connects Discourse to an existing site's login.

  • Topics
  • Chat
  • Email
  • SSO

Moderation, themes and plugins

Members who become trusted regulars earn abilities to help maintain the community. Moderators have inline and bulk moderation, a flag queue and post approval. Badges recognise contributions, with built-in and custom options. The look of the site can be changed with official and community themes, and plugins add features such as Discourse AI and the Data Explorer for SQL queries.

  • Moderation
  • Badges
  • Themes
  • Plugins

Self-host it under GPL-2.0

The only officially supported install is Docker based, on a 64-bit Linux server with at least 1 GB of RAM plus swap and 10 GB of disk. A single install script sets up Docker and git, then a wizard asks for admin email addresses, the domain and optional SMTP settings, and adds Let's Encrypt certificates automatically. Later upgrades can be run from a web-based interface. Discourse is released under the GPL-2.0 licence, and the company behind it also sells hosting plans.

  • Self-hosted
  • Docker
  • Linux
  • GPL-2.0

Where it fits

Use cases

  1. 01

    Run a customer support community

    Install Discourse on your own domain and invite customers to post their questions as topics. Connect it to your existing website login with single sign-on so customers do not need a new account. Members get email notifications and can reply by email, and badges recognise the people who help others.

  2. 02

    Keep a busy community tidy with a small team

    As regular members become trusted, they earn abilities to help maintain the community and hide spam or harmful posts. Moderators work through the flag queue, require approval for posts where needed, and use inline and bulk moderation. Official plugins add further tools, such as topic voting.

  3. 03

    Move a mailing list into a forum

    Set up the community and use its mailing list support so members can keep following discussions by email. Replies sent by email are added to the topic, so email users and web users share one conversation. Every discussion stays on the web, where it can be read and found later.