Apache Answer vs Forums.net
Apache Answer
answer.apache.orgForums.net
forums.netSide by side
| Figure | Apache Answer | Forums.net |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $49.99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Customer Community Software | 9.1 (#1) | 7.8 (#16) |
| Founded | 2022 | 2000 |
| Integrations | Official plugins connect services including Google, DingTalk, Slack, WeCom, Redis, Algolia, Elasticsearch, Meilisearch, S3, and Tencent COS. | The feature list names single sign-on, Tapatalk, YouTube and Vimeo video embedding, and VigLink support. |
| Support | Support is offered through community discussions, documentation, issues, mailing lists, and Discord, with no guarantee of an instant Discord response. | Support is offered through tickets, phone calls, and screen-sharing, and subscription plans include personalized onboarding. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache Answer
Apache Answer is a free, open-source Q&A platform for community forums, help centers, and knowledge management. Members can ask and answer questions, comment, vote, and earn reputation and badges. Tags, advanced search filters, and live suggestions help organize discussions and find relevant questions. Administrators can manage admin, moderator, and user roles, add users in bulk, and inspect edits in revision history. Themes and layouts can be customized, and plugins can add capabilities such as Google or generic OAuth2 login, Slack notifications, Redis caching, Algolia or Elasticsearch search, and S3 storage. Deployment options include Docker Compose, Docker, binaries, and aaPanel. The project lists binaries for Darwin ARM64, Linux AMD64 and ARM64, and Windows AMD64, and supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. Documentation describes controls for registration, login methods, allowed email domains, and member access to content. Apache Answer is licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0. Its security guarantee covers official repository plugins only, not third-party plugins.