18 self-hosted Discourse alternatives

Lightweight, extensible forum platform built in PHP with a Mithril.js frontend, supporting MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL/SQLite and an active extensions ecosystem.

16.4k stars1.7k forksMITlast commit 8 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Apache Answer is a modern open-source Q&A platform for teams to build knowledge bases, forums, and help centers.

15.6k stars1.3k forksApache-2.0last commit 17 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Apache Answer is an open-source Q&A platform for community forums, help centers, and internal knowledge sharing with tagging, voting, and a plugin system.

15.6k stars1.3k forksApache-2.0last commit 17 Jul 2026Actively maintained

NodeBB is a modern forum platform with real-time discussions, built-in chat, SSO options, plugins, and flexible theming, backed by Redis, MongoDB, or PostgreSQL.

15.2k stars3k forksGPL-3.0last commit 27 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Open-source intranet and enterprise social network for communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing with a modular, extensible design.

6.7k stars1.7k forkslast commit 22 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Misago is a modern, fast forum application built with Python, Django, and React, featuring moderation tools, permissions, private threads, polls, and API integrations.

2.8k stars550 forksGPL-2.0last commit 28 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Loomio is a collaborative decision-making tool for group discussions, proposals, and polls, helping teams make transparent decisions asynchronously with a clear record.

2.6k stars703 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 27 Jul 2026Actively maintained

phpBB is an open-source forum (bulletin board) platform in PHP for building and managing community discussion boards with extensible theming and add-ons.

2.1k stars1k forksGPL-2.0last commit 27 Jul 2026Actively maintained

RetroShare is a decentralized friend-to-friend platform for encrypted chat, mail, forums, channels and secure file sharing, with optional Tor/I2P support.

2k stars322 forkslast commit 23 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Self-hostable community discussion platform combining Q&A, forums, team chat, ideation/upvoting, and Disqus-style embedded blog comments.

1.8k stars128 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 10 Jul 2026Actively maintained

MyBB is a PHP-based, open-source forum platform with plugins, themes, moderation tools, private messaging and multi-database support.

1.2k stars439 forksLGPL-3.0last commit 27 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Open source Stack Overflow clone for teams: Q&A, knowledge sharing, search, spaces, reputation, webhooks, and integrations via a Para backend.

921 stars230 forksApache-2.0last commit 10 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Open-source PHP forum software supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite with a modular package system and rich moderation features.

744 stars270 forkslast commit 25 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Modern Node.js-based BBS server with Telnet/SSH/WebSocket access, theming and mods, message networks, file areas, doors, and strong authentication options.

656 stars121 forksBSD-2-Clauselast commit 6 Jul 2026Actively maintained

Mbin is a federated content aggregator offering voting, discussion and microblogging via ActivityPub. A community-focused fork of kbin, built with PHP and Symfony.

425 stars32 forksAGPL-3.0last commit 28 Jul 2026Actively maintained

A modern forum, wiki, and community hub for discussions, curated lists, and knowledgebases. Extensible, secure platform built with TypeScript and Go.

324 stars37 forksMPL-2.0last commit 8 Jul 2026Actively maintained

AsmBB is a lightweight, assembly-language web forum engine that runs via FastCGI and stores data in SQLite, designed for Linux servers and high performance.

Activity unknown

Open source ActivityPub-powered federated forum and link aggregator for running and joining community discussions across the Fediverse.

Activity unknown