head to head · open source
Discourse vs symphony
Discourse has 47,852 GitHub stars, 9,017 forks, 221 open issues and last shipped yesterday. symphony has 2,939 stars, 507 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Discourse leads on adoption by 1,528% (47,852 vs 2,939 stars). Discourse is written in Ruby under GPL-2.0; symphony is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. Discourse has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, symphony 17%. 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 | symphony | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 507 |
| 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 symphony if
- You want the symphony feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and symphony fits your workflow better
About Discourse
Discourse is a free, open source community discussion platform, built in Ruby on Rails and licensed under GPL 2.0, for organisations and communities that want complete control over how and where their forum is run rather than renting a hosted service.
read the full Discourse overview →
About symphony
Symphony is a community platform implemented in Java under the AGPL 3.0 license. It combines a discussion forum, a Q&A site, a social network with sharing, friends, and games, and blog like publishing in one system. The project lives in the Java ecosystem and is published through the B3log website and official discussion area.
read the full symphony overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Discourse or symphony more popular?
Discourse has 47,852 GitHub stars and symphony has 2,939. Discourse has the larger community by that measure.
Are Discourse and symphony free?
Both are open source. Discourse is licensed under GPL-2.0 and symphony under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Discourse and symphony?
Discourse is written in Ruby and symphony in Java. 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 symphony?
Choose Discourse if you want the larger community (47,852 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose symphony if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.