Answer
Knowledge-based community software. You can use it to quickly build your Q&A community for product technical support, customer support, user communication, and more.
Answer vs Discourse
Two self-hosted Communication - Social Networks and Forums apps, compared on the facts we track: GitHub popularity and activity, license, language, Docker images and a rough hosting estimate.
Side by side
| Answer | Discourse | |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Knowledge-based community software. You can use it to quickly build your Q&A community for product technical support, customer support, user communication, and more. | Advanced forum / community solution based on Ruby and JS. |
| GitHub stars | 15,710 | 48,052 |
| Forks | – | 9.1k |
| Open issues (incl. PRs) | – | 297 |
| Commits (12 months) | 247 | 7.1k |
| Last activity | 2026-09-22 | 2026-11-05 |
| Latest release | v2.0.3 (2026-10-09) | _gh-attach-assets (2026-07-15) |
| Maintenance health | Active | Active |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language / platform | Docker, Go | Docker |
| Docker Hub image | apache/answer | – |
| Docker pulls | 3914.2k | – |
| Est. server size | ~4 GB, 2 vCPU | ~2 GB, 1 vCPU |
| Est. hosting from | $20/mo | $10/mo |
| Categories | Communication - Social Networks and Forums | Communication - Social Networks and Forums |
| Links | Website · Source | Website · Source |
What the numbers say
- Discourse is more popular on GitHub: 48.1k stars vs 15.7k for Answer.
- Discourse had more commits in the last 12 months (7,126 vs 247).
- Discourse has more recent repository activity (2026-11-05 vs 2026-09-22).
- Answer published a release more recently (v2.0.3 on 2026-10-09; Discourse's latest is _gh-attach-assets on 2026-07-15).
- Answer is licensed under Apache-2.0, Discourse under GPL-2.0. Answer's license is permissive; Discourse's is copyleft (changes you distribute must stay open).
- Answer is written in Go; the language of Discourse is not listed upstream.
- Deployment options listed upstream: Answer: Docker; Discourse: Docker.
- Only Answer has a Docker Hub image that we detected (apache/answer).
- Our rough hardware estimate is lighter for Discourse (~2 GB server) than Answer (~4 GB); this is an estimate from the stack and category, not a benchmark.
Summary: Answer leads on Docker Hub availability; Discourse leads on GitHub popularity, commit activity and recent activity. The right choice depends on the features you need — read both project descriptions and docs.
This summary is generated from GitHub, Docker Hub and awesome-selfhosted data as of 2026-11-05. It does not rate features or quality.
Get the Docker images
Answer
docker pull apache/answerImage on Docker Hub. Ports, volumes and environment variables differ per app; follow the official docs.
Frequently asked questions
Is Answer or Discourse more popular?
Discourse has more GitHub stars (48,052 vs 15,710 for Answer, as of 2026-11-05). Stars measure interest, not quality.
Which is more actively maintained, Answer or Discourse?
Discourse had more commits over the last 12 months (7,126 vs 247). The last recorded activity was 2026-09-22 for Answer and 2026-11-05 for Discourse. Releases in the past year: Answer 10+, Discourse 10+. Our health labels: Answer is “Active”, Discourse is “Active”.
What licenses do Answer and Discourse use?
Answer: Apache-2.0. Discourse: GPL-2.0. Answer's license is permissive; Discourse's is copyleft (changes you distribute must stay open).
Can I run Answer and Discourse with Docker?
Answer has a Docker Hub image (apache/answer). We did not find one for Discourse, though the upstream listing mentions Docker as a deployment option.
Read more
Discourse
Advanced forum / community solution based on Ruby and JS.
Browse all self-hosted Communication - Social Networks and Forums apps.