Discourse vs Forumbee
Discourse
discourse.orgForumbee
forumbee.comSide by side
| Figure | Discourse | Forumbee |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $100/mo | $50/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 10 |
| Spec score · Community Platforms | 9.0 (#8) | 8.7 (#19) |
| Spec score · Online Community Platforms | 8.8 (#5) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · Forum Software | 8.9 (#2) | 9.1 (#1) |
| Spec score · Customer Community Software | 8.9 (#4) | 9.1 (#2) |
| Event hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Available integrations | Integrations include GitHub, chat providers, Zendesk, and authentication providers. | The pricing page names Slack, Google Analytics, Front, Zendesk and other integrations. |
| Mobile apps | both | none |
| Moderation tools | Discourse provides built-in moderation tools and AI-assisted community management. | Moderators can control registrations and content with approval queues, automation, pinning, closing, editing, removal and member flags. |
| Moderation tools | Yes | Yes |
| Private spaces | Yes | Yes |
| Self hosting | Users can self-host Discourse or use managed hosting. | The opened product and terms pages describe hosted service operation and provide no self-hosting option. |
Plans
Discourse
- FreeFree
- Pro$100 a month
- Business$500 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- Free planFree
Forumbee
- Premium$250 a month
- Enterprise$750 a month
- Additional Admin Users$50 a month
- Additional Members$100 a month
- Professional Services$200 a month
- Personalized Training$300, paid once
- Assisted Account Setup Package$1,500, paid once
- Custom Theme Package$3,500, paid once
- Gamification Module$4,200 a year
- Custom PlanPriced on request
In their own words
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.