head to head · open source
Discourse vs Misago
Discourse has 48,046 GitHub stars, 9,058 forks, 221 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Misago has 2,781 stars, 558 forks, 171 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Discourse leads on adoption by 1,628% (48,046 vs 2,781 stars). Discourse is written in Ruby under GPL-2.0; Misago is written in Python under GPL-2.0. Discourse has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Misago 20%. Discourse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (forum), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Discourse | Misago | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 558 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Discourse if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Misago if
- You want the Misago feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Misago fits your workflow better
About Discourse
The online home for your community. You can self host Discourse on your own infrastructure. But if you'd rather skip the setup, maintenance, and server management, we offer official Discourse hosting. 👉 Learn more about Discourse hosting Discourse is a 100% open source community platform for those who want complete control over how and where their site is run. Our platform has been battle tested for over a decade and continues to evolve to meet users’ needs for a powerful community platform. With Discourse, you can: 💬 Create discussion topics to foster meaningful conversations. ⚡️ Connect in real time with…
read the full Discourse overview →
About Misago
Misago ====== Development Status: 🍌 Bananas 🍌 Misago aims to be complete, featured and modern forum solution that has no fear to say 'NO' to common and outdated opinions about how forum software should be made and what it should do. Homepage: Documentation: Code & BugTracker: Screenshots Production use Misago implements all features considered "must have" on live internet forum: Your users may register accounts, set avatars, change options and edit their profiles. They have the option to reset a forgotten password. Sign in with Facebook, Google, Github, Steam, Blizzard.net or any other over 50 supported OAuth…
read the full Misago overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Discourse or Misago more popular?
Discourse has 48,046 GitHub stars and Misago has 2,781. Discourse has the larger community by that measure.
Are Discourse and Misago free?
Both are open source. Discourse is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Misago under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Discourse and Misago?
Discourse is written in Ruby and Misago in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Discourse or Misago?
Choose Discourse if you want the larger community (48,046 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Misago if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.