--- title: Discourse Reviews meta_title: 'Discourse Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 68 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Discourse works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.0 review_count: 68 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-17' parent_category: name: Marketing url: https://www.g2.com/categories/marketing --- # Discourse Reviews **Vendor:** Discourse **Category:** [Online Community Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/online-community-management) **Average Rating:** 4.0/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 68 ## About Discourse Discourse helps businesses build trusted online communities where engagement drives retention, support, and knowledge sharing. Designed to scale and easy to adapt, it offers full data control and powerful moderation. ## Discourse Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users appreciate the **complete feature set** of Discourse, enabling easy data search and effective collaboration. (3 reviews) - Users value the **ease of use** in Discourse, benefiting from seamless navigation and comprehensive database access. (2 reviews) - Users value the **knowledge sharing** capabilities of Discourse, fostering open discussions and collaboration on relevant topics. (2 reviews) - Users value the **intuitive user interaction** of Discourse, making collaboration and communication effortless among team members. (2 reviews) - Users appreciate the **easy-to-use content management features** of Discourse, enhancing collaboration among team members. (1 reviews) - Users value the **extensive customization options** in Discourse, enhancing their forum experience and engagement tracking. (1 reviews) - Customization (1 reviews) - Helpful (1 reviews) - Users find Discourse **intuitive and user-friendly** , enhancing engagement and facilitating easy navigation in discussions. (1 reviews) - Knowledge Management (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users find **duplicate content** problematic in Discourse, hindering their ability to find the latest or verified answers. (1 reviews) - Users face challenges with **duplicate content** and unreliable notifications, complicating information retrieval and validation. (1 reviews) - Users struggle with **irrelevant content** due to duplicate information, complicating their search for validated answers. (1 reviews) - Users find the **limited customization** of Discourse leads to confusing and redundant functionalities in the user interface. (1 reviews) - Users face **notification issues** that hinder communication and complicate the process of finding accurate information. (1 reviews) - Poor Interface Design (1 reviews) - Poor Navigation (1 reviews) - Poor Notifications (1 reviews) - Time-Consumption (1 reviews) ## Discourse Reviews ### 1. Discourse is a from-scratch reboot, an attempt to reimagine what a modern Internet discussion forum **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food & Beverages | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** Discourse pares all the complexity away and puts just the essential stuff on screen – the conversations you care most about, based on your participation. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** There is nothing I dislike about this product. **Recommendations to others considering Discourse:** There’s no super secret special paid commercial version with better or more complete features. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** defend itself from trolls, bad actors, and spammers — and the most engaged forum members can assist in the governance of their community. ### 2. Excellent Forum Software **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** I liked the fact that this software made the overall experience more enjoyable by offering achievement badges based on your frequent activity. It's also great that they offer mailing lists for certain forums. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** The privacy seems a bit iffy to me. Since private messages are viewable to administrators, it puts a lot less trust in the privacy of the software itself. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ease of communication on forums with similar interests/problems. ### 3. Other altnernatives **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** Its honestly a great place for centralized discussion. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** Many people didn't like the layout and organization of the website **Recommendations to others considering Discourse:** If you're looking for simple, then that is okay. However, we recommend Basecamp or even other websites that explore more than basic uses and experiences for the user and administrators. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** We found more benefits from other websites like Basecamp. ### 4. Good open source discussion software **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** Open source, simplistic and streamlined. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** Limitations on installation of the discourse. **Recommendations to others considering Discourse:** It is an open source product so it does not have the support/polish that enterprise software has. When using Discourse, definitely review their own forums to see potential issues and support. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cheap alternative that is open source. Easy to save money using it while maintaining communication. ### 5. Creative concept **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** I like that you can create a forum with your community or team members. Great for tips and discussions **What do you dislike about Discourse?** Nothing that comes to mind at this time **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** If you find an easier way to do something and want to share it or if you have a question, great place for discussion ### 6. Good system **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** Users can choose to use forum threads without the User Interface by subscribing via mailing list mode. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** Private Messages can be seen by Administrators, something which might not be clear to everybody. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** We've used it several times to use it with our equipment. ### 7. Easy to use forum software **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Business Supplies and Equipment | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** Easy to use software that lets users subscribing via mailing list mode without user interface. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** The tags are all lower case which seems a bit obscure. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** Tracking conversations and getting members of the community involved in discussions provides so much value. ### 8. Great product to use for work **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** I like that i was able to communicate with co workers through private chats or forums. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** I found it easy to use and found no dislikes **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** Able to ask supervisors for help with just a click of a button ### 9. Great way to email clients **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** I like that you can use it for email distributing . **What do you dislike about Discourse?** There is not much that I do not like about the software. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am able to get more emails out and interact with our customers more efficiently. **Official Response from André Sousa:** > Thank you for taking the time to review Discourse! We're glad to hear that you find our platform to be a great way to email clients. Our platform offers a range of features that allow for efficient email distribution and interaction with customers. We're also happy to hear that there's not much that you dislike about our software. We're constantly working to improve our platform and user experience, so we appreciate any feedback or suggestions you may have. It's great to hear that Discourse is solving problems for you and benefiting your business by allowing you to get more emails out and interact with customers more efficiently. We're honored to be a part of your success and we look forward to continuing to provide you with the best possible experience. Thank you for choosing Discourse! ### 10. Easy to use tool **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** Great discussion platform that has streamlined my team discussion workflows.. Simple, clean, and easy-to-use **What do you dislike about Discourse?** Option to edit/remove tags/categories would be nice. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** Streamlined the tracking of information, which we use to have everywhere - Google Drive, Drop Box, etc. ### 11. Great discussions **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Security and Investigations | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** I like the best that the discussions on Discourse are well organized and easy to read through **What do you dislike about Discourse?** I have not found anything to dislike about Discourse as of now **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it for research and technical advice/forums ### 12. Sociable **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Cosmetics | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** I like the ability to have an open forum and connect with multiple people **What do you dislike about Discourse?** Nothing really. Except the fact that it can be a bit more concise **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** You can collaborate with others easily ### 13. Discourse **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Photography | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** It is a great easy to use platform to connect with coworkers. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** The added features can be glitchy and hard to use **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** Connecting with coworkers ### 14. Great for communication **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Primary/Secondary Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** I use this to communicate with my colleagues. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** I've used other programs for this, which I like better. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy to use for communication. ### 15. Setup was hard, but works great **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2019 **What do you like best about Discourse?** Best forum/discussion software we have ever used **What do you dislike about Discourse?** More difficult to set up than our old forum software **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** Semi-public discussion forum ### 16. Discourse for document and information organization **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian G. | Content Producer and Art Manger, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Discourse?** I really like the ability to tag (add categories) articles and easily search by and organize those tags. The ability to sort the page by newest posts versus a more traditional Category listing is also great. The badges you earn when doing things in Discourse don't do anything, but they are a fun touch. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** Haven't found a way to edit/remove tags/categories. For example, if you've misspelled something, even if you don't use that tag, it still shows up in the list. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** We had best practice documents in Dropbox, in Google docs, on various internal servers. Information was all over the place. Discourse was a good, inexpensive way to bring it all together in one centralized place that's easy to search and find. ### 17. Simples to setup and put into practice **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luis P. | Partner and International Market Executive, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 09, 2017 **What do you like best about Discourse?** The process of setting it up and getting things started was very easy and practical. It has a modern approach to the interface and things are quite intuitive. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** Sometimes it feels quite disorganized. Items of discussion start to "pile up" in the main view. Gives that kind of feeling of having a lot of emails that you haven't responded to yet. **Recommendations to others considering Discourse:** I would give it a try, since the setup time was fast and the ease of use was also simple. A trial run will provide you with the experience to know if this is the right tool for you or not. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are using discourse as our main platform for internal discussions, in other words, a intranet forum. The main benefits are to provide an open and simples place for people to discuss ideas. ### 18. Great for Conversations and Big Groups **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Apparel & Fashion | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Discourse?** My favorite part of Discourse is the infinite scrolling they have that allows for more communication to happen. **What do you dislike about Discourse?** It can seem jumbled if this is the first time you use Discourse, but after you get the hang of it, it makes conversations simpler and more natural. **What problems is Discourse solving and how is that benefiting you?** For internal communication and discussions mostly. It helps us all stay on the same page. ## Discourse Discussions - [How do I set up a forum discourse?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-set-up-a-forum-discourse) - 1 comment - [How much does Discourse cost?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-much-does-discourse-cost) - 1 comment - [What is a discourse server?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-a-discourse-server) - 1 comment - [What is discourse app?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-discourse-app) - 1 comment - [View Discourse pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/discourse/reviews?page=2§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-18+19%3A16%3A53+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=7155f305-aae1-4b09-b15b-45de3cc39530&secure%5Btoken%5D=be4301e09077f3311f198afb0535590ff86f2a1deaac175d1660ca54f783d69d&format=llm_user) ## Discourse Features **Account Options** - Single Sign-On (SSO) - Social Login - Reputation System - Topic Subscription - Bookmarking - History **Knowledge Pages** - In-Content Feedback - Versioning and Version History - Decision Trees - Duplicate Detection - Content Editor **Community Building** - Member Profiles - Email & Notifications - Member Discovery - Member Referrals - Community Spaces - Paid Memberships - Multimedia Sharing - Courses **Knowledge Base** - Q & A - Link Sharing - Searchable **Q&A Tools** - Tags - Commenting System - Notifications - Voting - Integrations - Knowledge Integrations - Formatting - Analytics **Knowledge Dissemination** - Page Analytics - Permissions - Knowledge Sharing - Notifications - Advanced Search - Organization - Other Integrations - Knowledge Integrations **Community Improvement** - Gamification - Polls & Questions - Automation Rules **Security** - Verification - Role-Based Permission - Public vs Private **Agentic AI - Knowledge Base** - Adaptive Learning - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance **Customer Analytics** - Community Insights - Community Engagement Analytics - Downloadable Reports - ROI Tracking **Content** - Trackable Analytics - Import - File Viewing - Update Notifications **Community Management** - Community Feeds & Discussions - Live Streaming - Chat & Messaging - Events Management - Admin Roles & Permissions **Communication** - Social Features - Tagging - Upload - Comments **Agentic AI - Online Community Management** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making ## Top Discourse Alternatives - [Bettermode](https://www.g2.com/products/bettermode/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (114 reviews) - [Mighty Networks](https://www.g2.com/products/mighty-networks/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (733 reviews) - [Higher Logic Thrive](https://www.g2.com/products/higher-logic-thrive/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (427 reviews)