Community Engine vs Discourse
Community Engine
communitystack.io
Discourse
discourse.orgSide by side
| Figure | Community Engine | Discourse |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | £200/mo | $100/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 5 |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 8.5 (#27) | 9.0 (#8) |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes |
| Event hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Founded | 2025 | 2013 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | The platform lists Stripe Connect, Meetup, Eventbrite, Bevy and Luma integrations or migration adapters, plus a versioned REST API, signed webhooks, and TypeScript and Python SDKs. | Integrations include GitHub, chat providers, Zendesk, and authentication providers. |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
Plans
Community Engine
- Enterprise£8,000 a year
- Directory API£2,400 a year
- Market Intelligence£6,000 a year
- CoreFree
Discourse
- FreeFree
- Pro$100 a month
- Business$500 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- Free planFree
In their own words
Community Engine
Community Engine has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Discourse
Discourse is community software for hosting discussions, with options to self-host or use managed hosting. It supports private spaces, event hosting, custom domains and moderation tools, and its codebase is freely available on GitHub. The free plan costs nothing and includes unlimited members, 2 staff seats, 500k monthly page views, 20k monthly emails, 10 categories and 5GB storage. Pro costs $100 a month and includes 5 staff seats, 500k monthly page views, 100k monthly emails, unlimited categories and 20GB storage. Business costs $500 a month, with 15 staff seats, priority support, standard migration services and 100GB storage. Enterprise pricing is custom; it includes unlimited staff seats, 1M+ monthly page views, 1.5M+ monthly emails and 200GB+ storage. Enterprise also includes SSO, SAML, enterprise authentication and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Paid plans have a 14-day trial, and hosting plans require no credit card up front. Integrations include GitHub, chat providers, Zendesk and authentication providers. Support options range from community help to email support and professional services.