Mastodon Mastodon
vs
Discourse Discourse

This is a side by side comparison of Mastodon and Discourse. Two products that are similar in nature, yet provide unique feature-sets that are worth taking in to account before making a purchasing decision or start using the software. This page can help you broadly analyze the products and weigh pros and cons against one another. Allowing you scrutinize peoples opinions about Mastodon and Discourse, before making a decision if any of the products fit your use-case.

What is Mastodon?

Mastodon is a free and open source decentralized social network that is used by over 4.4 million people. At mastodon you can follow friends, discover and rally around topics, and share links, pictures, text, video, much like Twitter. The main difference with Mastodon is the decentralized nature of the software. Anyone is free to start their own Mastodon server, that automatically interconnects with all the other Mastodon servers. Since the network is community-owned and not backed by any venture capital you can be sure that your data will not be monitized and that you will have an ad-free experience.

How much does Mastodon cost?

No pricing information available..

What platforms does Mastodon support?

Mastodon is available for Web .

Top Mastodon Alternatives

GNU social

GNU social connects you to a free network of thousands of communities that discuss daily on a variety of topics, each being part of the whole. GNU social supports both single-user and community modes and can be used in an intranet environment or as part of the wider open network. The free and open source microblogging server is written in PHP and built on-top of the OStatus standard for inter-operation between installations.

Free & Open Source
👍 Most people think GNU social is a good alternative to Mastodon.

Twetch

Twetch is a blockchian-based social network. On Twetch, all interactions are micropayments in the form of Bitcoin BSV and the platform truley revolutionize social media interactions with its micropayments business model that does not include third-party actors taking shares off the payments. All of your content on Twetch is signed by you and stored on the blockchain, forever accessible to you.

Free & Open Source
👍 Most people think Twetch is a good alternative to Mastodon.

Pixelfed

A free and ethical photo sharing platform, powered by ActivityPub federation protocol. Pixelfed is open-sourced software licensed under the AGPL license.

Free & Open Source
👍 Most people think Pixelfed is a good alternative to Mastodon.

The software Discourse Discourse is removed from the Top Mastodon Alternatives since you are comparing against it. If you are looking for more software, applications or projects similar to Mastodon Mastodon we recommend you to check out our full list containing 25 Mastodon Alternatives.

Mastodon Gallery

What is Discourse?

Discourse is an open source internet forum and mailing list software. The application is written with Ember.js and Ruby on Rails, and can be self-hosted in the cloud or on local hardware for free. Discourse also provides managed hosting starting at $100/month, so that you can focus on building a community rather than installing software and managing servers.

How much does Discourse cost?

No pricing information available..

What platforms does Discourse support?

Discourse is available for Web and SaaS .

Top Discourse Alternatives

Flarum

A free and open-source modern forum software written in PHP. With Flarum you can eaisly setup your own discussion froum and host it online.

Free & Open Source
👍 Most people think Flarum is a good alternative to Discourse.

NodeBB

NodeBB is an open source forum software powered by Node.js and supports either Redis, MongoDB, or a PostgreSQL database. With NodeBB you can self-host communities with instant interactions and real-time notifications powered with the help of web sockets. Thousands of organizations have also stared their communites with NodeBB SaaS product, free from self-service and maintinance.

Free , Commercial & Open Source
👍 Most people think NodeBB is a good alternative to Discourse.

Simple Machines Forum

Simple Machines Forum or SMF in short is a free and open-source forum software. SMF can be used to build your own online community that you self-host on a host of your choice. Simple Machines Forum comes packed with features for customization, extension and management of your community. The template engine puts you in control of the design of your community. The plugin architecture makes it easy to extend and provide further feautres though third-party built packages. 

Free & Open Source

The software Mastodon Mastodon is removed from the Top Discourse Alternatives since you are comparing against it. If you are looking for more software, applications or projects similar to Discourse Discourse we recommend you to check out our full list containing 8 Discourse Alternatives.

Discourse Gallery