Best / Forums and community
Best open-source Forums and community
The best self-hosted forum split in the c17.io catalog is Discourse for a GPLv2 forum (the published Circle / GitHub Discussions / Discourse Cloud / Stack Overflow Teams stack), Flarum when you want that MIT lighter PHP forum, NodeBB when you want that GPL-3.0 Node forum, and Remark42 when the job is comments on a post rather than a forum. This is not Circle's course player or Stack Overflow reputation. Chat stays on /best/chat-team-messaging.
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Ranked picks
1
DiscourseGPLv2 forum — the c17 Circle / Discussions / Discourse Cloud path. /compare/discourse-vs-flarum.
When to pick it: Topics, trust levels, and email you host.
48,009 stars in the catalog
2
FlarumMIT lighter forum — /compare/discourse-vs-flarum. framework is the PHP code.
When to pick it: A smaller PHP community, not the Discourse OS.
6,761 stars in the catalog
3
NodeBBGPL-3.0 Node.js forum. A third forum if Discourse or Flarum is not the shape.
When to pick it: A modern-web forum in Node.
15,241 stars in the catalog
4
Remark42MIT comments already on /replace/disqus. Not a forum.
When to pick it: A widget on a post, not categories and trust levels.
5,636 stars in the catalog
How they compare
| Tool | License | Self-host | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discourse | GNU General Public License v2.0 | Medium | Topics, trust levels, and email you host. |
| Flarum | MIT License | Medium | A smaller PHP community, not the Discourse OS. |
| NodeBB | GNU General Public License v3.0 | Medium | A modern-web forum in Node. |
| Remark42 | MIT License | Easy | A widget on a post, not categories and trust levels. |
Related pages
- Discourse / Flarum stack
- Stoat + Element stack
- Remark42 stack
- Replace Circle
- Replace Skool
- Replace Facebook Groups
- Replace Stack Overflow Teams
- Replace GitHub Discussions
- Replace Discourse Cloud
- Replace Mighty Networks
- Replace Discord
- Replace Disqus
- Discourse vs Flarum
- All best open-source pages
- All compare pages
- All replace pages
- All stacks
- Tools catalog
FAQ
- Discourse or Flarum?
- Discourse if you want the published path. Flarum if you want that lighter MIT forum — /compare/discourse-vs-flarum.
- Is this Discord?
- Chat stays on /replace/discord (Stoat). This page is a forum.
- Is this Stack Overflow Teams?
- A forum, not a reputation graph. Same published stack — /replace/stack-overflow-teams.
- Are these free?
- Discourse is GPLv2. Flarum is MIT. NodeBB is GPL-3.0. Remark42 is MIT. You pay hosting. Template users never pay c17.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open /stacks/discourse-community. Persist Postgres, Redis, and uploads. Create one category.
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